Afghan Elections

Afghanistan\'s historic presidential election closed on Saturday without any of the feared large-scale violence, but the vote was thrown into turmoil when most candidates said a flawed process made the poll invalid.

All 15 of President Hamid Karzai\'s rivals said they were withdrawing from the election because systems to prevent illegal multiple voting had gone awry. The move effectively left Karzai as the only candidate in the fray.

Election officials refused to halt the process, which appeared to have been embraced enthusiastically by most voters across the rugged Islamic nation despite fears that many would be too afraid to participate.

"Halting the vote at this time is unjustified and would deny individuals the right to vote," said election official Ray Kennedy. He said the allegations would be investigated but other officials said it could take weeks to complete the process.

In the meantime, counting will continue.

U.S.-backed Karzai also said the vote could not be negated. "Its too late in the day for a boycott," he told a news conference. "Millions have voted in the rain, the snow and the dust and we should respect their decision.

"Just because 15 people have said \'No\', we can\'t deny the votes of millions."

The impoverished nation was voting to choose its first elected president and perhaps end a quarter-century of war.

It was not immediately clear how much credibility the poll would have after the boycott or whether it would lead to further divisiveness in the country, a patchwork of ethnic groups and often warring tribes held together for the past three years by the U.S.-backed interim government.

There were only scattered reports of election-related violence. In the biggest incident, 24 Taliban insurgents were killed in the central province of Uruzgan after a bombing raid by U.S. aircraft, provincial authorities said.

The Afghan Islamic Press quoted residents as saying 14 residents were also killed, mostly women and children.

WRONG PEN

Fears of sabotage by Taliban militants were overtaken halfway through the voting day when it became clear some workers were using the wrong pen to mark people\'s fingers after they voted.

This meant the ink could just be washed off and the voter could potentially cast a ballot again.

During the campaign, some candidates expressed surprise that as many as 10.5 million out of the country\'s 28 million people had registered to vote, and said they believed many people had received multiple voter cards. The indelible ink was aimed at preventing them from voting more than once.

The decision by Karzai\'s rivals to boycott the poll was made at an emergency meeting during voting. Eighteen candidates were on the ballot but two withdrew this week in favor of Karzai.

Later, all but one of the 15 demanded fresh polls and said they would not recognize any government elected on Saturday.

"We want the elections to be re-held as soon as possible in a fair, transparent manner and without interference," said Abdul Satar Serat, one of the candidates. "Any government that comes to power as a result of today\'s election has no credibility, no validity and is illegitimate for us."

Afghan affairs expert and author Ahmed Rashid said: "There were irregularities, no doubt about it, but the opposition boycott was probably pre-planned and they jumped aboard the ink issue when it emerged.

"If these candidates are serious about looking ahead to the parliamentary elections, or looking for a position in the cabinet, or looking to help Afghanistan in the future, there will have to be some compromise.

Ahead of the poll, security had been the overriding worry for election organizers fearing attacks by Islamic fundamentalist Taliban militants, who vowed to disrupt what they called a U.S.-orchestrated sham.

But the mood in most places appeared irrepressibly upbeat.

"This is one of the happiest days of my life," said Sayed Aminullah as he cast his vote at Eid Gah Mosque in the capital.

"I don\'t care about the result. All I care is that we are having an election. This is a sign that things are improving for Afghanistan."

In Kandahar city, the former headquarters of the Taliban and still the source of much of its support, large crowds of men pushed to get into a polling center near the blue-tiled Kherqi Sharif mosque.

On the other side of the street, only a trickle of women covered in burqa veils entered a school to vote, as many in the deeply conservative region have said they would not allow their wives and daughters to participate.

"We came here to vote for peace and stability and freedom for women," said Raihana, a 37-year-old mother of eight who lived in exile in Iran for 14 years to flee war.

The Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001 for refusing to hand over al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities that year. The world\'s most wanted man is believed to be somewhere along the border with Pakistan.

President Bush, who faces re-election himself next month, has cited the election in Afghanistan as a victory for democracy and a foreign policy and nation-building success for his administration.

Despite the boycott, counting will start immediately and first trends will be available by Monday. But it will be weeks before the full count is known and whether Karzai, the favorite, will get the 51 percent he needs to avoid a runoff in November.

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Well, at least it ended peacefully.  Hopefully Iraq can have just as much success.

Even though there is some concern over fraud I think this sets a good precident for the Iraqi elections though I believe those will be much much more difficult to carry out successfully.  Good post.