Afghanistan rules 1.3m parliamentary votes are invalid
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Afghanistan's election authorities have cancelled 1.3m votes in last month's parliamentary election because of fraud or other irregularities, reports BBC.
The number of void votes amounts to almost a quarter of the nearly 5.6m ballots cast in the 18 September poll.
Turnout was around 40pc in the election for the lower house of parliament.
It will take some weeks before final results are released because more than 200 candidates are being investigated for fraud.
And the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission is investigating more than 4,000 formal complaints.
"Turnout is around 5,600,000, the valid vote is 4,265,347, and the invalid vote is around 1,300,000," Fazil Ahmad Manawi, head of the IEC, said Wednesday.
The BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul says despite all this, there will probably be no rush to condemnation by the international community.
Ultimately, these elections' measure of success will be how they affect the stability of the country.
There was widespread intimidation during the election, with Taliban insurgents threatening voters not to take part. President Karzai's position is not threatened by the results.
The number of void votes amounts to almost a quarter of the nearly 5.6m ballots cast in the 18 September poll.
Turnout was around 40pc in the election for the lower house of parliament.
It will take some weeks before final results are released because more than 200 candidates are being investigated for fraud.
And the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission is investigating more than 4,000 formal complaints.
"Turnout is around 5,600,000, the valid vote is 4,265,347, and the invalid vote is around 1,300,000," Fazil Ahmad Manawi, head of the IEC, said Wednesday.
The BBC's Paul Wood in Kabul says despite all this, there will probably be no rush to condemnation by the international community.
Ultimately, these elections' measure of success will be how they affect the stability of the country.
There was widespread intimidation during the election, with Taliban insurgents threatening voters not to take part. President Karzai's position is not threatened by the results.