Afghan Polls

• John Kerry Calls Hamid Karzai Amid Afghan Poll Fears

  US Secretary of State John Kerry called Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday and urged him to address concerns of the rivals vying to succeed him, amid fears an election dispute could trigger instability.

• Protests Planned Over Afghan Election 'Fraud'

  Supporters of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah prepared to hold street protests in Kabul on Saturday as fears grow of unrest erupting over alleged fraud in the election one week ago.

• US Lauds Afghanistan Polls, Looks Forward to Sign Bilateral Security Agreement

  The US lauded Afghanistan people for braving threats of violence to vote in a presidential runoff, and said it was looking forward to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement with the new government there.

• Afghanistan election scores 58 per cent turnout: commission chief

  Turnout from Afghanistan's presidential election was seven million out of 12 million eligible voters, or about 58 percent, election commission chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said on Saturday.

• Caught on tape, a snippet of Afghan voting fraud

  On the audiotape, two men are heard speaking in Dari, with the distinct accent of the western city of Herat, as they negotiate terms for rigging more than a dozen races in Afghan's parliamentary elections.One of the men, according to the country's Independent Election Commission, is Abdul Rashid Irshad, a low-level functionary in the commission's K...

• Afghan election commission orders recount

  Afghanistan's election commission has ordered a recount of votes in some areas for recent parliamentary elections, a senior official said on Sunday, raising further concerns of misconduct and fraud during the polls.Election commission Chairman Fazel Ahmad Manawi said recounts have been ordered in parts of at least seven provinces.He said the number...

• After Afghan vote, complaints of fraud surface

  The farmers in Nagahan, a village in Kandahar Province, lined up early to cast their votes on Saturday, but there were no ballots and no ballot boxes, making the election seem a cruel joke."We waited until afternoon for the election material to arrive," said Haji-Qaum Jan Aka, 50, a village elder. "Then what did we get? Ballot boxes, but when we op...

• Afghanistan elections: A tale of two Sikhs

  Kabul is at the cusp between history and the modernity where the burqa mingles with women in Western clothes. Afghanistan is attempting to take another step on the democratic ladder in only its second Parliamentary elections. Every inch of space on Kabul's streets is covered with campaign slogans. Unabashedly, women stare down at passerbys as much ...

• Taliban kidnap candidate on eve of Afghan poll

  The Taliban kidnapped an Afghan parliamentary candidate today and were blamed for snatching another 18 election workers, as President Hamid Karzai warned of "irregularities" in the weekend poll.     The hardline Islamist militia, which has been fighting an insurgency for nine years since being ousted from power, has threatened a...

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  Afghan poll: Karzai to face run-off vote?

  A UN-backed panel has decided to cut the Karzai's share of the vote to 48 per cent, below the threshold for an outright win.