Concerns grew yesterday about intimidation and fraud in Afghanistan’s parliamentary election as allegations of voting irregularities filtered in from outlying parts of the war-torn country.

Millions of Afghans voted on Saturday in their second parliamentary poll since the 2001 US-led invasion overthrew the Taliban regime, against a backdrop of insurgent threats and attacks.

With counting under way and the first preliminary results expected on Wednesday, the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) was gathering reports of irregularities so that final results can be certified by October 31.

The ECC said 702 complaints were received in the first day after polling closed, but that number could “significantly rise” before a 72-hour deadline for submissions expires today.

Afghanistan’s main election observer body, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) which fielded almost 7,000 observers across the country, said some were prevented from carrying out their duties.

In its first report since the vote, FEFA said fake voter cards were found in 352 polling centres, multiple voting was witnessed at 1,228 sites and underage voting took place in 1,259 places.

Election officials said 5,355 polling centres opened on election day but that around 1,200 remained shut because security was poor.

Some polling centres opened late, and there were widespread allegations of bias by election workers, as well as problems with indelible ink – supposed to guard against a person voting more than once – that could be washed off.

FEFA called on the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to cooperate with the ECC in “investigations of fraud and coercion and to resist political pressure to announce the final results early without full verification of legitimate votes”.

President Hamid Karzai, whose own re-election last year was mired in fraud, has cancelled a trip to the UN General Assembly in New York to monitor the outcome of the polls, his spokesman Waheed Omer told reporters.

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