Ron Synovitz is a senior correspondent for RFE/RL.
After a delay of nearly a week, vote counting in Afghanistan's presidential election finally got under way yesterday -- only to be put on hold again today for celebrations marking the start of Ramadan. So far, with only about 26,000 valid ballots counted, transitional leader Hamid Karzai has garnered about 59 percent of the vote. But an estimated 8 million ballots remain to be tabulated before final official results can be announced.
Ordinary Afghans have been discussing how the country's historic presidential election was conducted on 9 October and whether the vote was free and fair. RFE/RL's Ron Synovitz and Freshta Jalalzai have been asking Afghan voters what they learned from their first exercise in democracy. All of those interviewed said they were excited about being able to vote. And those who said they were disappointed by the voting process were eager to suggest ways to correct what they see as faults in the system ahead of the more complicated parliamentary elections in 2005.
The Taliban has failed to carry out the massive terrorist attacks it had threatened during Afghanistan's presidential election. U.S. officials say tight security across the country averted two major attacks in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Oruzgun. That is where the U.S.-led coalition continues to battle remnants of the ousted Taliban regime. A handful of small-scale attacks across the country on election day failed to stop voting. Last night, suspected Taliban fighters fired rockets into Kabul -- the first such attack on the capital since the 9 October vote. But all in all, the chaos promised by Taliban fighters has not materialized. RFE/RL spoke with U.S. military officials about how the combined efforts of the coalition, the Afghan National Army, and the Afghan National Police kept the electoral process from being disrupted.
Vote counters in western Afghanistan on 10 October Afghanistan's presidential election is being called a major success by its international and Afghan organizers. Voter turnout has been described as "massive." Terrorist attacks threatened by Al-Qaeda militants and remnants of the Taliban appear to have been thwarted by tight security across the country. Still, the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) admits that mistakes were made on 9 October when millions of Afghans cast secret ballots for the first time in order to choose their country's leader. The JEMB and an independent panel are now examining those mistakes to ensure they are not repeated when Afghanistan takes its next important step on the road to democracy -- the elections for parliament and local administrative offices slated for spring of 2005.
Thousands of election workers have begun tallying ballots at eight regional counting centers across Afghanistan following yesterday's presidential election. UN and Afghan election officials say the earliest preliminary results won't be available until late tonight or tomorrow. They say it could take a week for a clear trend to emerge. Final official results aren't expected before the end of October because ballot boxes in the most remote parts of the country have to be carried to the counting houses on mules and camels over roadless terrain. In the meantime, the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) has begun to investigate claims of fraud and incompetence alleged by the challengers of Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai.
Election officials said voters turned out in large numbers in Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election, with no reports of major attacks or violence to disrupt the poll. But the election was marred by a different kind of turmoil -- complaints by some of Hamid Karzai's rivals, who said the vote should be halted largely because of irregularities. Voters at polling stations visited by an RFE/RL correspondent in Kabul today were initially excited and spoke of high expectations. But that mood turned to anger when voters discovered that the ink used to mark their thumbs and prevent multiple voting could be easily wiped off.
The UN's top official in Afghanistan has issued his overall assessment of conditions for tomorrow's Afghan presidential election. Jean Arnault, the UN secretary-general's special representative, says the disarmament of Afghan factional militias has fallen short of expectations. He says a culture of violence persists in which some candidates are encouraging voter intimidation. And he says most Afghans need to be better educated about how elections work. But despite these problems, Arnault concluded there is a "degree of freedom and fairness" that will allow Afghans to express their political will tomorrow.
[For more on the Afghan elections, see RFE/RL and Radio Free Afghanistan's dedicated webpage "Afghanistan Votes 2004-05." --> http://www.azadiradio.org/en/specials/elections/ ]
The UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body says it has completed most preparations for the 9 October presidential election. What remains is to deliver ballots and other election materials from provincial centers to the most remote polling stations. The UN's election security chief, John McComber, says security is also ready. The Afghan national police, army, and international forces are guarding against attacks by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. They also are keeping an eye on possible intimidation of voters by various militia groups that back different candidates.
Sudanese refugees from Darfur in Chad (file photo) The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says a complete end to violence in Sudan's western region of Darfur is needed to convince hundreds of thousands of displaced people they can eventually return to their homes. Ruud Lubbers said there is enormous mistrust between Darfur's displaced population and Sudanese authorities. Although security has improved in recent months, more than 1.4 million Darfur residents have been displaced and are still afraid to return home amid continuing reports of attacks by Arab militia fighters. A UN Security Council resolution threatens Sudan with possible sanctions if it fails to stop the violence. The UN has called Darfur the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The United States describes it as genocide and accuses Sudan's Islamist government of involvement. But Sudan's foreign minister says the administration in Washington is exaggerating the crisis to gain votes in the upcoming U.S. election.
A debate about whether the Koran allows men to instantly divorce their wives through the "triple talaq" is dividing Muslim communities in India. On one side is the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence. It is followed by about 60 percent of India's 120 million Muslims. In India, the Hanafi interpretation of Shari'a law says that a marriage immediately ends if a man tells his wife "talaq" -- or, "I divorce you" -- three times in a row. But other Muslim schools of thought in India argue that the Koran requires a waiting period after each utterance of "talaq." The dispute has been highlighted recently by reports of several Indian Muslims who instantly divorced their wives by mail, over the telephone, and even through mobile-phone text messages.
Yunos Qanuni (file photo) Afghan Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai's aides have been trying to convince his main rival in next month's presidential election to drop out of the race. Officials from the political teams of both Karzai and his former education minister, Yunos Qanuni, have said that a deal is close. But Qanuni said he is not ready to quit the election and support Karzai's candidacy. For his part, Karzai told RFE/RL that he would welcome some political opponents into what he called a "national partnership" government. But the front-running incumbent says he will not create a coalition government in exchange for support from any of his 17 challengers.
Asian political leaders have created a special fund to help Afghanistan with priority reconstruction projects. The fund was announced today as heads of state from 10 countries in the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) gathered in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. On the sidelines of the summit, the presidents of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan have been talking about a proposed highway project that could become a major trade route for their countries.
Prague, 13 September 2004 (RFE/RL) -- Experts on Afghanistan see yesterday's violence in the western city of Herat as the final phase of a long struggle between the central government and deposed Herat Province Governor Mohammad Ismail Khan.
North Korea is accusing the United States of applying "double standards" in its role as one of the mediators in six-party nuclear nonproliferation talks on the Korean peninsula. The criticism by Pyongyang's envoy to the United Nations yesterday was the country's first official reaction to South Korea's recent admission that it had experimented with small amounts of uranium and plutonium. Plutonium and enriched uranium are two key ingredients of nuclear weapons. Conducting such tests without immediately informing the UN's nuclear watchdog -- the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) -- is a violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Both North and South Korea signed that treaty, but Pyongyang withdrew in January 2003.
The legacy of slain mujahedin commander Ahmad Shah Mas'ud has become an election campaign theme in Afghanistan. Several leading candidates in the 9 October ballot are invoking the name of the ethnic Tajik leader of the former Northern Alliance. Interim leader Hamid Karzai has named one of Mas'ud's brothers -- Ahmad Zia Mas'ud -- as a vice-presidential running mate. Karzai's chief opponent is Yunos Qanuni. He is campaigning as the candidate of Nahzat-e Melli-ye, a mostly ethnic Tajik political group founded on Mas'ud's legacy by another of his brothers. A third candidate -- Islamic hard-liner Abdul Hafiz Mansur -- claims he is the only true representative of Mas'ud's legacy. RFE/RL looks at how the "Lion of Panjsher" is being remembered and revered on the third anniversary of his death on 9 September.
Campaigning in Afghanistan's presidential election officially began today. Afghan Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai and his 17 opponents have 30 days to try to win support from more than 10 million registered voters. The ballot is the final step of the post-Taliban democratic reforms known as the Bonn Process. But analysts warn that disputes over the outcome could set back the reform process -- particularly if they lead to fresh violence in the country.
Concerns are growing about the potential for manipulation in Afghanistan's first direct presidential election. Just five weeks before the October ballot, the United Nations and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) have issued a report warning of voter intimidation and a lack security across much of the country. The report says the elections could be seriously undermined.
The Taliban is claiming responsibility for a car bomb in Kabul yesterday that killed at least nine people -- three Afghans, three Americans, and three Nepalese. The bomb was detonated in front of the offices of the U.S.-based private security firm DynCorp -- a company that has contracts to train officers for the Afghan National Police and to provide security for Afghan Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai. The attack came just hours after an explosion at a religious school in the country's southeastern Paktiya Province killed eight Afghan children and at least one adult.
Islamabad's recent efforts in the war on terrorism have focused on Al-Qaeda fighters. But now there are growing calls from Western diplomats, the Afghan government and the United Nations for Pakistan to rein in Taliban militants who have fled from Afghanistan into Pakistan since late 2001.
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