Ink Stain on Afghan Election

Afghanistan’s Interim Head of State, Hamid Karzai, was a favorite in the election, but the other 15 candidates running for office announced that they would not accept the election results.

The opposition party said that they boycotted the election because the ink was easily washed off leading to repeated votes and several irregularities. The election observation committee did not stop the voting process despite the protest. Whether or not the election will be re-held is to be determined in the upcoming days.

NATO’s civil representative to Afghanistan, Hikmet Cetin, spoke to Zaman in Kabul yesterday. He said: "The electors indicated to me that the ink on their fingers was easily washed away. I also tried and saw that the ink was gone. The successful election became controversial."

Zaman had declared that hundreds of people are presumed to have registered to vote multiple times putting the constitutional monarchy at risk. The women voted in a separate place and those who were illiterate or did not want to uncover their faces had some difficulties.

10.5 million votes were recorded and there was great interest from 1.3 million "refugee voters" in Iran and Afghanistan. The census was lengthened two hours for fear of election riots that would prevent people from voting.

Those fears were not realized as no such protest was successful. 24 Taliban members were killed in an airborne attack organized by the Coalition forces in Uruzgan County. 18,000 coalition soldiers and 8,000 NATO peace keeping forces helped the security units.

500 international observers watched the historical elections.