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Election Complaints Overwhelm Afghan Voter Commission

   VOA News 21 September 2010

   Afghanistan's  U.N.-backed  election  commission  says it has received
   nearly   3,000   formal   complaints  about  Saturday's  parliamentary
   elections.
   The  Electoral Complaints Commission said Tuesday that more than 1,300
   of those complaints have been filed since election day.  Nearly 1,700
   complaints were made before Saturday's vote.
   The ECC has set a Tuesday deadline for Afghans to file complaints.
   Election  officials  say  close  to  four  million  Afghans  voted for
   candidates  running  for  249  seats in the lower house of parliament,
   known as the wolesi jirga.
   On  Monday,  a  spokesman  for  President Hamid Karzai said it was too
   early to judge the quality of the elections.  Observers have said the
   balloting  was  marred by widespread fraud, including under age voter,
   repeat  voting,  and  intimidation  and  have  called  on  the  Afghan
   government to fully investigate all allegations.

   Voters  braved  violence to head to the polls, with at least 22 people
   killed  and  more  than  280 insurgent attacks reported throughout the
   country.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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