Confidential UN data shows substantial discrepancies in Afghanistan’s disputed election, with vote counts in some provinces exceeding actual voters by more than 100,000, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
The paper cited a spreadsheet kept secret by the UN’s chief envoy in Kabul, Kai Eide, who has been under pressure to release details of what his sacked former deputy, US diplomat Peter Galbraith, described as “very extensive” voter fraud in the Aug. 20 election.
The UN data obtained by the Post showed major discrepancies between actual voter turnout and the results, particularly in provinces where Afghan President Hamid Karzai won by wide margins.
In southern Helmand Province, where 134,804 votes were recorded — 112,873 of them for Karzai — the UN estimated that just 38,000 people voted, and perhaps as few as 5,000, the newspaper reported.
In Paktika Province, while 212,405 valid votes were cast according to Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, including 193,541 for Karzai, the UN estimated that just 35,000 people voted. Kandahar Province recorded 252,866 votes, including 221,436 for Karzai, but the UN voter estimate was 100,000.
And in several provinces won by Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s main challenger, the global body estimated larger turnouts than those recorded by election officials. In Balkh province, the UN estimates 450,000 people voted, but results showed 297,557 votes.
The Post reported that a UN spokesman in Kabul, Dan McNorton, did not dispute the authenticity of the spreadsheet but cautioned that “the information that you have is unsubstantiated raw data and should be treated as such.”
But in comments to the Post, Galbraith said the data was critical to assessing the credibility of the election and should have been handed over to Afghan officials and international election monitors, but that Eide refused.
“I think we did an excellent job at collecting data,” the Post quoted him as saying. “We collected it with the idea of assisting the Afghan legal party that was investigating fraud, but Kai opposed turning it over.”
Galbraith has described Eide as being biased in favor of Karzai.
Karzai leads in preliminary results from the disputed election with about 55 percent of the vote, against Abdullah with just under 28 percent. The winner needs 50 percent plus one vote.
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