By Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Christina Lamb in Washington
Afghanistan’s opposition leader Dr Abdullah Abdullah warned yesterday that he might not be able to restrain angry supporters from taking to the streets as it emerged that more than one in five votes cast in last month’s election were fraudulent.
“I have urged them strongly not to do that,” he told The Sunday Times as his followers called for demonstrations. “They are aware of the fragility of the situation.”
He added: “If you are asking for a guarantee, 100%, will you be able to control everyone in this country, the answer is no, n … o.”
Even before the August 20 poll, Abdullah’s supporters were predicting Iran-style protests “with Kalashnikovs” if President Hamid Karzai won in the first round, insisting he could do so only by cheating.
With 92.8% of ballots counted, Karzai is ahead with 54.3% of the vote, enough to avoid a second-round run-off if confirmed when the count is completed. It is remarkably close to the 55% he secured in the 2004 election, although there is widespread disillusionment with his government.
The Election Complaints Commission, sponsored by the United Nations, has been swamped by allegations of vote rigging at 2,804 polling stations. There are claims of police intimidation, bribery and ballot-box stuffing. At least 726 of the allegations are deemed serious enough to sway the outcome and the inquiry could take months.
Abdullah, who is in second place with 28.1% of the vote, insisted that the only fair outcome would be a second round of voting.
“We’re talking about big, big fraud,” he said.
The international community is desperate to encourage Karzai and his two main challengers to form a national unity government and avert violent protests.
The Sunday Times has obtained a report by monitors from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, completed yesterday, which said 1,253,806 votes — 23% of the total counted so far — could be fraudulent.
According to the analysis, if all these votes were cancelled then Abdullah’s share would increase by almost 4 percentage points to 32.03%. Karzai’s share would drop by 6.62 points to 47.48%, triggering a second round. The share of Ramazan Bashardost, the third-placed candidate, would rise to 10.7%. (Read more)
