Taleban cuts off voters' fingers as threats hit election turnout

Published on Saturday 22 August 2009 20:08

TALEBAN militants cut off the ink-stained fingers of two Afghan voters in the militant south during the presidential election, the country's top election monitoring group said yesterday.

Two voters who had dipped their index fingers in ink – a fraud prevention measure – were attacked in Kandahar province shortly after voting on Thursday, said Nader Nadery, head of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan.

Millions of Afghans voted in the country's second direct presidential election, although Taleban threats and attacks appeared to hold down the turnout, especially in the south, where President Hamid Karzai was expected to gain strong support among his fellow Pashtuns.

If results show that vastly more people voted in the north than the south, "then we will have an issue," Nadery said.

Fewer votes in the south would harm Karzai's chances of a second five-year term, and increase the prospects of his top challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

If neither candidate gets 50 per cent in the first round, they will go to a second round runoff. Preliminary results will not be announced until Tuesday, and final results won't be certified until mid-September.

Nadery said his group saw widespread problems of partial election officials who were pressuring people to vote for certain candidates. They also saw voters carrying boxes of voter cards to polling sites, as well as many underage voters, he said.

Meanwhile, British officials are debating how to prevent the corruption and cronyism that have characterised Karzai's first term.

In Helmand province in the south – where UK troops have suffered huge losses in three years of bloody fighting – there is concern that trusted allies such as the local governor could be moved aside.

Hugh Powell, the senior diplomat in charge of the British mission in Helmand, warns that "bad appointments to key jobs" could set back progress in the province.

Powell, who has been in his post for 15 months and is due to leave shortly, said the British and Americans were "huge fans" of current Helmand governor Gulab Mangal, a presidential appointee.

"It's about competent, uncorrupt leadership in those jobs of the provincial governor, district governor and so on," he said. Britain has reportedly clashed with Karzai over his regime's links to warlords and its backing of a former Helmand governor accused of heroin trafficking.

There have also been reports associating the president's younger brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, with the drugs trade.

But UK officials concede that putting a check on the Afghan leader will be difficult if it is confirmed that he has won Thursday's ballot.

One British source said: "Karzai's re-election cannot mean five more years of the same.

"Top of the list for gripping the government is gripping the appointments system.

"But the politics of doing that with a sovereign independent state with a president who has got a fresh mandate – a person who, to a certain extent has the power to call your bluff – is highly constrained."