Election results postponed

Final results for Afghanistan’s landmark parliamentary polls were again delayed by ongoing inquiries into alleged election fraud in southern Afghanistan, the UN and government-run Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) said on Wednesday. The results were initially scheduled for release in late October, but they have been repeatedly delayed by fraud investigations. Final results will be announced within a few days, Peter Erben, the chief electoral officer for the JEMB, told a press conference in the Afghan capital Kabul. “The final results have been certified in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces,” Erben explained, adding that the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) was still dealing with allegations of fraud in the southern province of Kandahar. The polls have been hailed as the final formal step toward a representative government after a quarter century of war that left more than a million people dead. Parliament is expected to convene in the third week of December, President Hamid Karzai's spokesman, Karim Rahimi, told reporters on Tuesday. Ballots cast in up to 3 percent of polling stations were excluded from the vote count because of fraud allegations including ballot stuffing, the JEMB said last month. Of the country's 12.5 million registered voters, some 6.8 million Afghans took part in the polls to elect a national legislature and 34 provincial councils for a five-year term. Almost 5,800 candidates contested the poll, including over 2,700 for the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga and more than 3,000 for 420 seats in the provincial councils. Afghanistan’s last parliamentary elections were held in 1969, before a coup in 1973 and the 1979-89 occupation by the Soviet Union.