Officials from Afghanistan's Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) indicated on 2 October that with about 80 percent of the ballots counted from the 18 September parliamentary and provincial elections, they have found what "The New York Times" described as "significant cases" of fraud, the paper reported on 3 October.
Peter Erban, chief of operations at the JEMB, said that ballot boxes from 1,000 of the country's 26,000 polling stations have been earmarked for investigation of possible irregularities, the paper reported. When clear cases of fraud are found, he said, the votes in question will not be counted.
"I do not believe these irregularities in any way have affected the overall elections, but some of them have surely affected them locally," Erban said, adding "tough action" is forthcoming, according to international news agencies.
Erben predicted "some strong decisions" in the coming days concerning the Afghan vote count, Pajhwak News Agency reported on 2 October. The EU observer mission announced on 30 September that apparent voting irregularities were a "cause for concern" and called on the JEMB to address the problem "in a transparent and effective way in order to safeguard the integrity of the electoral process." AT
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