Complaint Over Afghan Poll Ink

Source: Al Jazeera

One of the candidates in Afghanistan's presidential election has called for polling to be halted after he was able to clean off the ink marking on his finger supposed to ensure against voter fraud.

Ramazan Bashardost, a former planning minister, standing on an anti-corruption platform, made a formal complaint after voting at a high school in the capital, Kabul, on Thursday.

"Ramazan Bashardost is taking this extremely seriously, he has lodged a formal complaint and he wants voting stopped straight away," Al Jazeera's James Bays, who was at the polling station as the MP made the discovery, said.

"There were two other candidates also in that polling station and they saw what happened. An angry crowd gathered ... very concerned about this."

Voters are required to dip thir finger into a pot of ink after casting the ballots in order to prevent them from voting again at another polling station.

more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/08/200982071544692829.html