KABUL, 19 October 2004 — The likely runner-up in Afghanistan’s historic presidential election alleged yesterday that the vote was marred by cheating, as President Hamid Karzai appeared on course to win without needing a second round runoff.
The result of the Oct. 9 poll, the country’s first presidential election, might not be out until early November due to the logistics of bringing ballot boxes in from remote areas in Afghanistan’s mountains and deserts.
Five people were killed yesterday when an election commission vehicle was hit by a roadside blast in Paktika, one of the southern provinces where a Taleban-led insurgency is active.
But for all their threats, Taleban fighters proved incapable of disrupting the election, and the greater concern has been over charges of voting irregularities.
With over 17 percent of the ballot counted so far, Karzai was comfortably in front. His main rival, Yunus Qanuni, said the vote was always loaded in Karzai’s favor.
“There was cheating before the election, there was cheating during the election and it is still continuing,” the former education minister told a news conference yesterday.
“The newborn baby of democracy was slaughtered in front of our nation and the international community on the day of its birth.”
Qanuni, from the country’s Tajik minority, did not elaborate. And, despite the comments on cheating, he promised to help Karzai, a member of the Pushtun community which is the largest in Afghanistan, stabilize and rebuild a country shattered by war and riven by ethnic divides.
“If my previous friend, Mr. Karzai, is successful ... I will congratulate him and help him reconstruct and forge national unity in a new Afghanistan,” Qanuni said.
Karzai’s rivals had threatened to refuse to recognize the result until the election commission established a three-member panel to investigate voter fraud.
Soon after meetings with US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad in the days after the election, Qanuni and two other contenders from the main ethnic minorities all said they would honor the outcome so long as the panel did its job.
President George W. Bush, seeking re-election himself on Nov. 2, has called the Afghan election a triumph for democracy.
Karzai was installed in office after US forces overthrew the Taleban regime three years ago for harboring Osama Bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Karzai is seen by many Afghans as their best hope for peace and security after a quarter century of conflict. They also see him getting Washington to commit billions of dollars to rebuild the economy.
Despite being an ethnic Pushtun, Karzai has managed to cultivate some cross-ethnic appeal, but the vote still appeared to reflect ethnic loyalties and the power of regional leaders backed by private militias.
Karzai has garnered over 62 percent of the votes counted so far, remaining on course to score above the 51 percent mark needed for an outright win without going to a November run-off against his nearest rival.
Qanuni was in second place with close to 19 percent. Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek from the north, was third with 8.3 percent, and the other 15 candidates trailed way behind.
Qanuni is seen by many as a proxy for Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, one time leader of a Tajik militia faction who fell out with Karzai, notably over disarmament policies.
Fahim and Qanuni inherited support from the Panjsher Valley, the domain of late legendary Mujahedeen leader Ahmad Shah Masood.
With a quarter of the votes counted in Panjsher province, a symbol of resistance to both Soviet occupation in the 1980s and Taleban rule since the mid-1990s, Qanuni won almost 96 percent, despite support for Karzai from two of Masood’s brothers.
A wave of attacks expected from Taleban on polling day failed to materialize and millions turned out to vote.
But there has been a resurgence of violence since then and at least 20 people have been killed. Five people died yesterday when an explosive device hit a vehicle being used by election staff in the southeast.
A United Nations spokesman said the electoral commission was checking to see whether the explosion in Paktika province, which is littered with mines and other explosive devices, had been a deliberate attack.
Meanwhile, the new Afghan army is winning the support of the population and is capable of tackling a lingering insurgency by remnants of the ousted Taleban regime, the US general in charge of its training said yesterday.
Maj. Gen. Craig Weston, commander of the US Office of Military Cooperation — Afghanistan (OMC-A), told a news conference in the capital that the 17,000-strong force was winning hearts and minds and the fight against the Taleban.
He said commanders of the US-led coalition overseeing the formation of the new Afghan National Army were very pleased with the performance of the force during the election.
“Together we inflicted a strategic defeat to the Taleban, Al-Qaeda and the other enemies of freedom,” Weston said.
“The Afghan people should be rightfully proud of the green berets of their new national army, who helped make this election so successful.”
But there is no timetable to reduce or withdraw foreign forces in Afghanistan and hand over operations entirely to the ANA.
