10 Percent of Afghan Polling Centers in Danger

tekisui

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Tue Jul-28-09 02:28 PM
Original message

10 Percent of Afghan Polling Centers in Danger

Source: AP

KABUL – Hundreds of polling stations could be closed in Afghanistan's most violent regions, raising concerns that many ethnic Pashtuns will be unable to vote in next month's presidential elections. That could undermine the legitimacy of the election, cause turmoil and possibly deprive President Hamid Karzai of a first-round victory.

Afghan authorities plan to establish about 7,000 polling centers across the country for the Aug. 20 balloting. But security officials are unsure whether voting can take place in about 700 of them, said Noor Mohammad Noor, a spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission.

At least 500 will probably not open because of security fears, according to a Western official working on the elections. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to comment publicly on the process.

Nearly all those polling stations are located in Pashtun areas of the south and east where the Taliban insurgency is the strongest, the official said. Most are in the Pashtun provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Wardak and Ghazni.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090728/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_elections

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tekisui

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Tue Jul-28-09 03:17 PM
Response to Original message

1. Afghan election to deploy donkeys

Source: CBC News

About 3,000 donkeys will carry ballots and voting boxes to the most inaccessible regions of Afghanistan for presidential elections in August, officials in Kabul said Tuesday.

The burros will be deployed along the steep ridges of the Hindu Kush mountain range, which bisects Afghanistan, areas that trucks and even helicopters cannot reach.

Meanwhile, a top UN official in Afghanistan warned that the elections will be the most complicated he has ever seen. About 17 million people are eligible to vote Aug. 20.

His remarks came as a gunman opened fire on a campaign team for former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, killing one campaign worker Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan. Abdullah is the top challenger to President Hamid Karzai.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/07/28/afghanistan-elections028.html

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tekisui

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Tue Jul-28-09 03:18 PM
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2. Suicide donkeys part of life in Kabul

Watch out for donkeys - they could be rigged with bombs.

That's the latest warning when out on the streets of Kabul. Donkeys carting improvised explosive devices, or IEDs as they are known, hidden in their sidebags.

And for "improvised" don't read amateurish - IEDs are sophisticated and the main killer of international forces in Afghanistan.

more: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10587276

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tekisui

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Tue Jul-28-09 03:22 PM
Response to Original message

3. I expect violence to escalate to the August 20th elections.

And, when Karzai is ruled the winner, the challengers will cry foul. They claim he could only win if the election is rigged, and already, he is being written as the likely winner. We could see protests and outrage that US troops/NATO will be used against. I have the feeling our forces will be used to squash an uprising against Karzai. Anyone protesting can be called an insurgent/extremist/militant/Taliban.

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