Most ballot boxes in, as observers comment on poll

The movement of ballot boxes from polling centres to counting locations has been completed in 29 provinces out of a total of 34 in Afghanistan’s landmark elections, electoral officials said on Thursday. "The counting is under way in all 32 counting centres. The count is slow but deliberate due to the complex ballots with so many entries of candidates," Peter Erben, chief electoral officer at the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Results from some provinces were expected by the middle of next week. Full results are not expected until early October, Erben said. In five isolated provinces, the ballot boxes from Sunday’s polling were still on the road, he added. Some 12.5 million Afghan voters – 44 percent of them female - were given the opportunity to elect a national assembly and 34 provincial legislatures for a five-year term. Almost 5,800 candidates contested the poll, including over 2,700 for the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) and more than 3,000 for 420 seats in 34 provincial councils. The JEMB has welcomed preliminary reports from some of the many foreign and local election observer missions released this week. "The reports of observer missions will help us in future to produce better management of the election. They have mentioned not only our achievements, but also the shortcomings," Bimillah Bismal, chairman of the JEMB, said. The Bangkok-based Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), one of the international monitoring groups, said in a country like Afghanistan, voter education should be an ongoing activity. The low turnout on Sunday was partly blamed on confusion and ignorance among those eligible to vote about the whole election process - completely new to most Afghans. ANFREL also recommended the JEMB take steps to level the electoral playing field, so that wealthy candidates did not have a significant advantage over poorer candidates – a common complaint this time around, particularly from women standing for election. Bismal appealed to all with an interest in the polls to accept the results, whatever the outcome. "Of over 5,800 candidates, only 669 will win," he reminded the nation.