Most Afghan Ballots Are Approved
KABUL, Afghanistan — An international team investigating allegations of fraud in last weekend's presidential election set aside a small portion of suspect ballot boxes Wednesday but approved the overwhelming majority of ballots for counting.
Under pressure to resolve disputes over Afghanistan's first democratic presidential vote Saturday, two members of the United Nations panel began their work without the third member, who is yet to be named.
Although the deadline for candidates to file complaints was extended until today, investigators said they would not set aside any more ballot boxes.
The U.N. team asked election organizers to isolate suspect boxes at 11 polling stations in four provinces after receiving complaints from candidates, said Craig Jenness, a Canadian member of the investigating panel.
There were more than 22,000 voting stations, and about 5,000 polling centers, in Afghanistan's 34 provinces. Tuesday's deadline for complaints was extended 48 hours, Jenness said.
He said the investigating panel's recommendation to segregate some of the ballot boxes "does not necessarily mean that irregularities took place. It does mean that in reviewing these complaints expeditiously, it was evident that further investigation was required in those locations."
Ballot boxes were still arriving at eight counting centers across the country. Many were being transported by donkey and helicopter from remote areas.
Hundreds of election workers have begun to prepare the ballots for counting, but by Wednesday night, the tallying hadn't started.
The counting is expected to take several weeks.
The investigative panel was set up after 15 candidates who ran against U.S.-backed incumbent President Hamid Karzai announced a boycott of the election on voting day, as complaints of irregularities mounted.
On Wednesday, ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum joined the two other main challengers to Karzai in agreeing to recognize the outcome of the vote if the panel did not find an unacceptable level of voting irregularities.
"Dostum is of the view that the election is a major achievement for everyone," said his spokesman, Faizullah Zaki.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad played a prominent role in persuading the main opposition candidates to accept the U.N. panel and drop their boycott.
