KABUL, 11 October 2004 — Afghan President Hamid Karzai said yesterday that some of the candidates who had called for a boycott of a historic presidential election had changed their mind and were willing to accept its legitimacy.
The discovery that the ink used to mark voters’ fingers to prevent multiple voting had at some places been washable, led most of Karzai’s rivals to cry fraud and call for a fresh vote.
Karzai’s comments indicated some movement toward resolving the arguments over Saturday’s landmark poll, in which millions of Afghans voted for a president for the first time ever.
“Some of the esteemed candidates have rejected the boycotting of the election,” Karzai told a news conference. “And we are hopeful that other candidates do not ignore the national jubilation and let the votes be counted.
“The Afghan people voted yesterday in millions and that is what I see,” he added. “I am blinded to everything else. It was a celebration, I’m thrilled.”
No official turnout figures have been announced, but by most accounts, millions turned out to vote despite threats by Taleban rebels to sabotage the election.
Some 850,000 Afghan refugees voted in Iran and Pakistan, about half the number eligible in Iran and 80 percent of those registered in Pakistan, the International Organization for Migration’s refugee voting operation said in Islamabad.
The vote count starts today, and if no one gets a 51 percent majority when full results are available in two to three weeks, the top two will contest a runoff in November.
The largest group of independent poll observers, the Free and Fair Election Foundations of Afghanistan (FEFA) composed of 13 local non-governmental organizations, said the vote was fair despite the complaints.
“The large participation of Afghans is an encouraging sign of people’s participation in the democratic process,” it said.
Midway through Saturday, all 15 of Karzai’s rivals announced they were boycotting the poll because some election workers had marked voters’ fingers with washable, not indelible, ink.
This, and questions over the late and rapid registration of 10.5 million voter cards in a population of about 28 million, led to accusations of illegal multiple voting.
Apart from the problems with the ink, “a fairly democratic environment has generally been observed in the overall majority of polling centers,” FEFA said.
Before the election, the main worry had been the threat posed by Taleban guerrillas and their vow to sabotage the poll. But there was only scattered election-related violence. The Interior Ministry said 10 members of the security forces had been killed, while 25 militants were killed in a firefight in restive Uruzgan province.
“The millions who came to the polls clearly wanted to turn from the rule of the gun to the rule of law,” said the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which had 40 experts monitoring the election. “The candidates’ demand to nullify the election is unjustified,” the OSCE said.
The Joint Election Management Body of UN and Afghan experts was to investigate the ink problem, but said vote counting would go ahead.
Two candidates — the lone woman in the fray, Massouda Jalal, and Hazara chieftain Mohammad Mohaqiq — appeared to back away from the deadlock yesterday and said they would accept the result of an investigation into the irregularities.
The international community is keen that the election be widely accepted as legitimate. Western donors have pumped in aid and the United Nations has been closely involved in the election, which many believe will endorse the US-backed interim government.
In Kabul’s main Pul-e-Khisti bazaar, back to its usual chaos after the vote, opinions were divided.
“I’m happy for what happened yesterday,” said Mohammad Yousuf, his turban and shawl framing his bearded face. “And to the person I voted for, I am appealing to him to please look after our country and help the poor.”
Nasir Ahmad disagreed: “It is clear that yesterday’s elections were fraudulent and illegal because a person can only vote once, not five times. They should hold another election.”
