Afghan Elections: FEFA records 11,000 instances of anomalies

The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) on Wednesday said it had recorded 11,000 incidents of fraud, irregularities, militant threats and closure of polling stations during Saturday’s elections.

The watchdog released a report, saying it observers had noted 9,500 cases of electoral fraud, including 2,600 of a serious nature. It said people’s participation was beyond expectations, but there had been election law violations. FEFA chief Nader Naderi told reporters 141 ballot boxes had been stuffed in favour of a particular candidate and 997 cases were related to underage voting.

He added 323 cases were about militant threats to polling stations and 437 incidents about the closure of election sites owing to insecurity.

He said in some instances men used female voter cards and in others poor quality indelible ink was used. Observers were barred from monitoring the voting process at some polling centres, he said. He said some polling centres had run out of ballot papers until midday and others opened late.

FEFA chief executive Jandad Spinghar said men had used female voter cards at 507 polling sites in different areas.

He added 297 observers were not allowed to monitor the election process and 2,305 polling sites were opened late and 1,727 sites remained open beyond the official closing time. There were 209 cases of poor quality election ink. Spinghar said fraud and law violation cases in the April 5 election had been less compared to those occurred during the 2009 election.

All the cases had been referred to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to decide, he concluded.