Afghan challenger says election 'widely rigged'

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's main challenger said yesterday he had evidence last week's election had been widely rigged by the incumbent and that he had lodged more than 100 complaints.

With counting underway following Thursday's vote, the country is on tenterhooks ahead of an official result - although the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and a relative lull in violence has helped calm tensions.

Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, whom polls gave a fighting chance of pushing the election to a second round, said he had evidence of widespread rigging. Mr Abdullah and Mr Karzai's camp both say they are ahead in the vote count.

"The initial reports we are receiving are a bit alarming, I must say," he said. "There might have been thousands of violations throughout the country, no doubt about it."

Mr Abdullah accused Mr Karzai of "widespread rigging" and said his team had lodged more than 100 complaints with election officials.

"This has to be prevented. That's critical for the survival of the process and that's critical as far as the hope for a better life of the Afghan people is concerned," Mr Abdullah said.

In a separate news briefing, the country's election watchdog said it was dealing with scores of complaints, but there was no sign they would directly affect the result.

The Independent Election Commission also said partial results would be released tomorrow, and repeated its warning to candidates that they should not make premature declarations.

Two opinion polls ahead of the election predicted Mr Karzai would win, but not by enough to prevent a second round run-off against Mr Abdullah in October. Mr Karzai must win more than 50 per cent of the vote to avoid a runoff.

The Election Complaints Commission said it had received 225 complaints of which 35 had been labelled a priority.

"The allegations contained in the complaints we have received so far range from voter intimidation, violence, ballot box tampering (to) interference by some IEC (Independent Election Commission) officials," ECC chairman Grant Kippen told a news conference. Mr Kippen said the ECC was aware of "significant complaints" of vote irregularities, but that there were no specific charges against individual candidates such as Mr Karzai.

An election result respected by the candidates and their supporters is crucial for the country and for US President Barack Obama, who has made stabilising Afghanistan his top foreign policy priority.

Washington has poured thousands of extra troops into Afghanistan this year as part of Mr Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban, but polls show support for the eight-year-old war is slipping as casualties increase from the growing insurgency.

"I think it is serious and it is deteriorating, and I've said that over the past couple of years, that the Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated, in their tactics," said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Admiral Mullen told CNN's "State of the Union" TV programme that General Stanley McChrystal, commander of some 102,000 US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, had not yet asked for more troops. General McChrystal will soon deliver an assessment of the war.

Millions of Afghans braved threats of Taliban violence to vote in what was only the country's second presidential election.

Mr Abdullah said the southern provinces of Ghazni and Kandahar - the birthplace of the Taliban - were major areas of concern. He said vastly exaggerated voter turnouts were being reported, as well as ballot box stuffing well after the actual vote.