Afghan counting centers waiting to be put to work

Election officials empty ballots boxes at a counting center in Kabul yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

The votes in rugged Afghanistan's first-ever direct election will be counted by hand, after more than 24,000 ballot boxes are carried across its mountains and arid plains by donkey, helicopter and truck.

When the joint UN-Afghan electoral commission gives the go-ahead for suspended counting to begin, eight regional counting centers will swing into action.

With claims of irregularities during the voting itself disrupting an otherwise peaceful and enthusiastic election on Saturday, officials are desperate to avoid similar problems during the counting process. Afghans and international staff will count the votes by hand and will be supervised by an international counting center manager, agents of the candidates and observers.

The votes will be tallied in batches of 10 ballot boxes and results will be made public in the counting center before being released nationally. Final results could take several weeks.

A system is in place to handle complaints about the counting process, firstly in the counting centers and then by referral to the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB).

The count was put on hold after charges of irregularities by opposition candidates, now being investigated by the JEMB and a three-person international panel. The candidates opposed to interim President Hamid Karzai, who is widely expected to win, alleged a number of irregularities, including the embarrassing discovery that indelible ink used to mark the fingers of those who had voted could be washed off.

The formation of the international panel averted a crisis hanging over the shattered central Asian state's first exercise in democracy.

Counting was expected to begin yesterday or today.

"There are papers piling up and they are ready to be counted," said David Avery, JEMB logistics officer.