KABUL: Half of the most senior Afghan district election officials will be fired, UN officials said on Wednesday, to prevent more fraud in a runoff presidential poll crucial to the country’s credibility and foreign support.
The announcement of a Nov. 7 runoff removed one stumbling block for US President Barack Obama as he weighs whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taleban.
Concerns about a repeat of the widespread fraud that tainted the first round in August cast a long shadow as hasty preparations for the second round kicked off on Wednesday. The UN mission in Afghanistan, which provides assistance with election-related operations, said preparations were under way to block any risk of mass fraud.
Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN mission, said 200 of 380 district election chiefs from the government-appointed Indepen-dent Election Commission (IEC) were being replaced after the watchdog found evidence of widespread fraud and vote-fixing.
“More than half of the district field coordinators are being replaced to prevent any attempted fraud or because there have been complaints made against them by candidates and observers,” said Siddique. Afghanistan now faces a logistical nightmare, having just over two weeks to prepare for a second round of voting as the harsh Afghan winter, which makes much of the mountainous country inaccessible, closes in.
