‘Problems’ plague Afghan polls, casualties near 300

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KABUL, Oct 21, (Agencies): Problems plagued hundreds of Afghan polling centres Sunday in the shambolic legislative election’s second day of voting, fuelling criticism of organizers and eroding hopes for credible results after a ballot marred by deadly violence.

As voting restarted in more than 20 provinces, an AFP tally of official casualty figures showed the number of civilians and security forces killed or wounded in poll-related violence on Saturday was nearly 300 – almost twice the figure released by the interior ministry. The huge discrepancy adds to concerns about the lack of transparency and credibility of the long-delayed election that is seen as a dry run for next year’s presidential vote.

At some of the 253 polling centres opened for voting on Sunday, election workers still struggled to use biometric verification devices and voter rolls were “either incomplete or non-existent”, Electoral Complaints Commission spokesman Ali Reza Rohani told reporters. “Most of the problems we had yesterday still exist today,” said Rohani, adding some polling sites again opened late and had insufficient ballot papers. Another 148 polling sites that were supposed to open remained closed for security reasons, the Independent Election Commission told AFP.

The IEC’s chronic mishandling of the parliamentary election, which is the third since the fall of the Taleban in 2001, has all but dashed hopes it can organize the presidential ballot, scheduled for April. Embattled IEC chief Abdul Badi Sayyad on Sunday defended the organisation’s handling of the election, saying the problems were not due to “weak management”

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