KABUL, 14 October 2004 — Another top rival to Afghan election frontrunner President Hamid Karzai ended his boycott of the process yesterday, but vote counting was further delayed as a panel began to sift through dozens of complaints of fraud.
Ethnic Uzbek Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum joined the two other main challengers to the incumbent in agreeing to recognize the outcome of the country’s first-ever direct presidential vote.
While his decision increases the chances of the election being widely recognized by Afghans, Saturday’s poll has been overshadowed by a mix-up over the type of ink used at polling stations that raised concerns over multiple voting. A panel set up to look into irregularities has received 43 complaints so far, and extended the deadline by which the 18 candidates could raise objections until today evening, making vote counting unlikely before then.
It had been due to start yesterday morning. Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, was one of 14 candidates who refused to recognize the outcome of the vote after the scandal over the ink first broke.
The decision cast a pall over what otherwise was an often festive show of democracy by millions of men and women who defied threats of violence and suicide bombings by Taleban guerrillas bent on disrupting the election.
“Dostum is of the view that the election is a major achievement for everyone,” said his spokesman, Faizullah Zaki.
The administration of President George W. Bush wants to claim the poll as a success before the US election on Nov. 2, particularly after worsening security in Iraq has raised questions over poll scheduled there for early next year.
The commander of 18,000 American-led troops in Afghanistan hunting remnants of the Taleban and Al-Qaeda said the United States had no intention of pulling out, despite a US proposal to give NATO the leading military role as early as 2005.
