Low turnout, Taliban attacks plague Afghanistan election

September 19, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

KABUL

Deep-seated voter discontent, calculated attempts to rig the vote and widespread Taliban intimidation Saturday marred Afghanistan’s parliamentary election, which was considered a bellwether for America’s troubled campaign to stabilize the war-weary nation.

Though Taliban attacks killed at least 14 people across Afghanistan, international observers and top Afghan officials praised the imperfect election as a tentative sign of progress one year after widespread fraud tainted Afghanistan’s presidential vote.

However, amid reports of widespread voter fraud, the nation’s leading election watchdog group said that it had “serious concerns about the quality” of the election and called on the country’s leaders to investigate.

Many disillusioned Afghans ignored Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s plea to take part and said their political system isn’t working.

“This has a negative impact on democracy,” said Mir Usman, an election observer for one of the 2,500 Afghan politicians taking part in the vote to select 249 lawmakers for the country’s largely ineffectual lower house of parliament.

Major polling places in key parts of the country appeared empty throughout the day.

Elections officials estimated that 3.6 million Afghans took part in the election, down from about 6 million who turned out for last year’s more-significant presidential election.

Afghanistan’s Free and Fair Election Foundation, an independent watchdog group that sent 7,000 observers to polling sites around the nation, said there had been serious security problems at nearly 400 of the country’s 5,300 polling places that were open.