Afghan presidential challenger talks with rivals

By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – Afghan President Hamid Karzai's top challenger said Saturday he has reached out to several other candidates — but not the incumbent — in the days since the presidential election, and that a second round of voting was likely.

If no candidate in Thursday's poll has secured 50 percent of the ballot, the two top will go to a runoff vote, for which they may need to muster support from rivals.

"I am in contact either directly or indirectly with most of the presidential candidates," former Foreign Minster Abdullah Abdullah said. He would not say who he has talked to or whether any alliances have been discussed.

Both Karzai and Abdullah have claimed to be in the lead, according to their own tallies. Initial preliminary results from Afghanistan's second-ever direct presidential elections won't be announced until Tuesday, and final results won't be certified until mid-September.

Taliban threats and attacks appeared to hold down turnout, especially in the south where Karzai was expected to run strongly among his fellow Pashtuns. At least 26 Afghan civilians and security forces died in dozens of militant attacks.

Monitors confirmed Saturday that some had made good on a threat to cut off the ink-stained fingers of voters.

Two voters who had dipped their index fingers in purple ink — a fraud prevention measure — were attacked in southern Kandahar province shortly after they left a polling station Thursday, said Nader Nadery, the head of Afghanistan's top election monitoring group, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. Kandahar is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Rumors that militants would sever voters' ink-stained fingers spread before the vote. A Taliban spokesman had said militants would not carry out such attacks, but the Taliban is a loose organization of individual commanders who could make good the threat on their own.

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 winning a second five-year term and increase the chances that Abdullah could pull off an upset.

Abdullah said his campaign's tallies suggested a second round of voting was likely.

"These are very preliminary results, but still it puts me in the lead," he said. "It's not claiming victory. I'm saying in these early days and early preliminary results, I'm very happy."

Election officials have urged the candidates to refrain from claiming to be ahead in early vote counting, saying it could delay the formation of a new government.

Officials of Afghan and international monitoring teams agreed it was too early to say who won or to know whether fraud was extensive enough to affect the outcome. Fraud complaints are being filed with a commission that will rule on all allegations.

Nadery said his group saw widespread problems of election officials who were not impartial and were pressuring people to vote for certain candidates. Election monitors also saw voters carrying boxes of voter cards — so many votes could be cast — to polling sites and saw many underage voters, he said.

On Saturday, one of the long shot presidential candidates displayed torn and mangled ballot papers that he said had been cast for him and tossed away by election workers who support Karzai.

Mirwais Yasini, a parliamentarian, stood behind a table piled with ballot papers that he said his supporters had found ditched outside Spin Boldak city in southern Kandahar province. The ballots bore the stamp of the Independent Election Commission, which is applied only after they are used for voting.

"Thousands of them were burned," he said.

Though monitors with the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan were present in all 34 provinces, international monitoring groups were restricted by security concerns. The Washington, D.C.-based National Democratic Institute only had observers in 19 provinces, passing over many violent areas of the south and east.

European Union observers had difficulty getting to polling stations in southern Kandahar province because of rocket attacks, said Sandra Khadhouri, a spokeswoman for the delegation. The EU had observers in 17 provinces.

"That elections took place at all is a notable achievement," the EU said in a statement. The delegation said threats and violence meant that voting could not be considered free "in some parts of the territory" but that the process so far appeared "good and fair."

The National Democratic Institute also said it saw orderly voting, but said the vote also "involved serious flaws that must be addressed in order to build greater confidence in the integrity of future elections."

The group pointed to the lack of a voters' list and the fact that members of the Independent Election Commission are appointed by the incumbent, suggesting a likelihood of bias.

It said violence disrupted voting in the south and southeast, which appeared to repress turnout, especially among women.