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Holbrooke ‘expects’ disputes over Afghan election

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KABUL: Allegations of rigging and fraud are expected in the Afghan presidential election, US Special Envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said on Sunday.

Holbrooke told AP Television News in the western city of Herat that observers should wait for the official complaints process to run its course before judging the vote’s legitimacy. “We have disputed elections in the United States. There may be some questions here,” he said.

The top Afghan monitoring body said there were widespread problems with supposedly independent election officials at polling stations trying to influence the way people voted. The group also catalogued violations such as people using multiple voter cards so they could vote more than once, and underage voting.

Holbrooke said the US government would wait for rulings from Afghanistan’s monitoring bodies – the Independent Election Commission and the Electoral Complaint Commission – before trying to judge the legitimacy of the vote.

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