Nearly one quarter of Afghan votes may be tossed

Fraud, including ballot-box stuffing and forced-voting, could mean as many as one-quarter of the votes cast in the September 18 Afghan parliamentary election will be thrown out, reports the New York Times. The Afghan Independent Election Commission says it will nullify votes from 430 polling stations and is currently auditing the votes from 830 other locations. Observers say the Commission is under pressure to change the result before it is announced. The commission has delayed its final confirmation of results until Wednesday. What’s at stake is the lower house of Afghanistan’s parliament, the Wolesi Jirga. If President Hamid Karzai’s party gets fewer than 130 seats, he will no longer have a majority government. His main competitor, Abdullah Abdullah’s Coalition for Hope and Change, is believed to have made substantial gains.

New York Times