Evidence: ‘Serious Fraud’ in Afghan Election

Turnout Exceeded 100 Percent in Many Districts

Though publicly officials are continuing to call Saturday’s election a massive success, internal reports from the Independent Election Commission (IEC) emerged today pointing to strong evidence of “serious fraud” in the vote.

The documents add credence to a number of independent accounts of ballot stuffing and intimidation that came out in the wake of the vote, but also provided some interesting details.

For instance, a number of districts in the pro-Karzai southeast saw over 100% turnout. In Paktia Province one district reported 626% turnout. The official average turnout was 40% but even this figure was artificially inflated by reductions in the number of eligible voters.

That this was possible was hardly surprising, as extra voter cards were being sold in volume at bazaars across the nation and observers said officials at some sites were openly stuffing ballots.

Some 20% of the polls in the nation didn’t even open, ostensibly for security reasons. But for the 3.6 million votes cast, there appear to have been many, many fewer actual voters.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.