Afghan presidential rivals agree to vote audit

KABUL, Afghanistan — After nearly 12 hours of often tense negotiations, Secretary of State John Kerry announced Saturday that Afghanistan would audit all eight million votes cast in a runoff presidential election last month as part of a deal to end a tense power struggle between the top two candidates.

The audit, intended to resolve allegations of widespread fraud, is to begin almost immediately, he said, and will be supervised by international monitors. Its results will be binding, and the winner will go on to head a national unity government whose shape has yet to be finalized.

“Every single ballot that was cast will be audited,” Mr. Kerry said at a news conference where he was flanked by the two candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, who endorsed the agreement.

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The breakthrough came on the second day of a visit that Mr. Kerry hastily arranged to try to prevent Afghanistan’s first democratic transfer of power from collapsing. Both Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani had said the election was marred by fraud, but both had also claimed victory.

Tensions were heightened Tuesday when Mr. Abdullah threatened to form his own government following the release of preliminary results from the runoff, raising the possibility of an ethnically and regionally divided Afghanistan just as American troops prepare to complete their combat mission.

Mr. Kerry spent Friday largely listening to the proposals of the Abdullah and Ghani camps and meeting with President Hamid Karzai.

And then on Saturday, shortly before 9 a.m., he began what would turn out to be an entire day of shuttling between meeting rooms at the American Embassy, where each candidate had gathered with a handful of advisers. He also met with Mr. Karzai at the presidential palace in the afternoon.

By the time they announced the deal, Mr. Kerry looked like a man who had put in a long day’s work. Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani looked similarly worn out by the marathon negotiations, which had achieved what they alone could not in the weeks since the June 14 runoff.

“This is unquestionably a tense and difficult moment,” Mr. Kerry said, “but I am very pleased that the two candidates who stand here with me today and President Karzai have stepped up and shown a significant commitment to compromise.”

Mr. Kerry said the audit would begin within 24 hours and take several weeks, and Mr. Karzai indicated that he would agree to postpone the inauguration, though he urged that the auditors try to complete their work in time to meet the scheduled date of Aug. 2.

He did not set a new date, only saying it would take place after the audit.

Mr. Karzai seemed comfortable with the outcome, something of a turnaround, as he had previously refused to allow international “interference” in the elections.

Mr. Kerry and Mr. Karzai have been through painfully long negotiations on previous occasions, but the two men seemed at ease together on Saturday night.

If it is implemented successfully, the deal will be an accomplishment for Mr. Kerry, who has long played a troubleshooting role on Afghanistan.

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When he was a senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Kerry persuaded Mr. Karzai to accept a runoff in the contested 2009 presidential election. In March 2013, Mr. Kerry went to Kabul to rebuild relations with Mr. Karzai after he publicly accused the United States of wanting to destabilize the country.

Not all of Mr. Kerry’s efforts on Afghanistan have held up. In November 2013, Mr. Kerry announced that the United States and Afghanistan had completed the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would establish a legal basis for keeping American forces in Afghanistan after 2014. Mr. Karzai later refused to sign the agreement, though Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani have each indicated that they would do so shortly after assuming office.

The accord on the terms of an audit follows several recent setbacks for Mr. Kerry, most notably the failure of an intensive effort to secure a Middle East peace agreement. His push to encourage productive talks between Russia and Ukraine has also fallen short.

But in Kabul, Mr. Kerry had more leverage than he had in the Middle East. Afghanistan’s security forces depend on billions of dollars of assistance from the United States. In calls to each of the candidates last week, President Obama stressed his support for a review of the fraud, but warned pointedly that resorting to violence or taking extraconstitutional actions “would result in the end of U.S. assistance to Afghanistan.”

To ensure security — and to give the candidates confidence that no new vote tampering was taking place during the audit — the NATO-led military coalition in Afghanistan is to fly ballot boxes that are currently in the provinces to Kabul, the capital, and work with Afghan forces to provide security for the boxes once they arrive. United Nations and other international observers will watch the entire process.

Jan Kubis, the United Nations special representative in Afghanistan, called on other nations to send extra observers to assist with the audit as soon as possible.

Discussions on Saturday concerned how to determine how many ballots should be re-examined for fraud and how to ensure that the audit was impartial. Both sides had wrangled over the technical details, in particular the threshold for selecting which ballots should be reviewed.

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RECENT COMMENTS

Cole W 12 minutes ago
I highly doubt this will solve anything once the audit is all said and done. One side will claim victory once again and the other will cry...
Yoandel 51 minutes ago
So both sides agree that ballot stuffing by the other side was incontrovertible and by the hundreds of thousands... yet an audit, which can...
Withheld 1 hour ago
I am looking forward to the follow-up article in the Times on how you audit a flawed election. What are the auditors going to be looking...
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Mr. Kerry had to seek not only agreement by the two candidates, but also acceptance by Mr. Karzai, who will step down after 13 years in power and has by all accounts remained a powerful presence behind the scenes.

In the first round of voting on April 5, Mr. Abdullah emerged the top vote-getter against 11 other candidates, with 45 percent to Mr. Ghani’s 31 percent. Because neither won more than 50 percent of the vote, a required runoff between the two was held on June 14.

Preliminary results from the runoff show Mr. Ghani leaping ahead with 56 percent of the vote, and Mr. Abdullah with 44 percent. The turnout in the runoff also increased by more than a million voters, to eight million.

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Mr. Abdullah’s campaign has accused his opponents of conducting extensive institutional fraud, and has alleged that members of the Independent Election Commission, government officials and Ghani supporters orchestrated large-scale ballot stuffing to enable Mr. Ghani to win the presidency.

Mr. Ghani’s team has said that fraud took place on both sides and insists that his better showing in the runoff was the result of an energetic campaign to mobilize his fellow ethnic Pashtuns to vote for him.

The dispute, which has delayed results for nearly a month since the initial vote, comes amid a rise in violence around the country. Civilians are killed and wounded more frequently now in Afghanistan than at any point since the arrival of American forces, the International Crisis Group said in a statement on Saturday.

Seven members of the Afghan security forces were killed in clashes with the Taliban east of the capital in Laghman Province on Saturday.

Two tribal elders and a family of eight were killed in three separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, electricity has been knocked out in the city of Kandahar, and a bomb killed two people in Jalalabad.

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The power struggle between the candidates had threatened to once again plunge the country into ethnic violence. Some officials here warn that such an outcome could be even more dangerous for the country than the continuing Taliban insurgency.

“The legitimacy of this voting process is obviously at stake,” a senior administration official traveling with Mr. Kerry said in a briefing to journalists Friday evening. He was speaking on the condition that he not be named in accordance with State Department rules.

“There were millions of people that voted in the first round and then again in the second round of elections,” he said. “They deserve to be counted accurately and to demonstrate that democracy works.”

Correction: July 12, 2014
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the day of the initial vote. It was April 5, not June 14. (The latter date was the day the runoff vote was held.)

Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on July 13, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline:

Afghans to vote in run-off election as US troops exit

KABUL: Afghans head to the polls Saturday for a second-round election to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, with the threat of Taliban attacks and fraud looming over the country´s first democratic transfer of power.

The vote pits former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah against ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani in a head-to-head contest to lead Afghanistan as US-led troops withdraw after 13 years of fighting Taliban insurgents.

April´s first-round vote was hailed a success as turnout topped 50 percent and Islamist militants failed to launch any high-profile attacks on polling day.

But Saturday presents another major challenge in the prolonged election process, which began with campaigning in early February and will end when the final result is announced on July 22."There is concern that the enemy who failed in the first round will seek revenge, but we can assure you they will fail again," General Afzal Aman, head of Afghan army operations, told reporters.

"We have been conducting missions all over Afghanistan for election security for the past two months."

Ahead of the vote, the Taliban issued a warning to voters, saying that polling booths would be targeted by "non-stop" assaults.

"By holding elections, the Americans want to impose their stooges on the people," the insurgents, who were ousted from power by a US-led offensive in 2001, said on their website.

International fears have focused on the risk of tension between the candidates´ supporters after the result, which may be contested if the count is close and serious fraud allegations are raised.

"No one should be complacent about what is at stake in the coming weeks," US ambassador James Cunningham said in a statement. "We call on both candidates to direct their campaigns and supporters not to engage in fraud."It is our fervent hope that the two candidates, with the future of their country in their hands at this unprecedented time, will not seek a winner-take-all outcome.

"The last presidential vote in 2009 was riddled with fraud, damaging relations between the Afghan government and the US-led donor nations on which it relies for funding.

Abdullah eventually pulled out of that election, allowing Karzai to retain power, but this year neither candidate is likely to back down if the result is close.

Typing mistake causes discrepancy in vote count in NA-68: EC

ISLAMABAD: Additional Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Dr Sher Afgan said typing mistake in a polling station result did not have any impact on the election result of NA-68 Sargodha.

Talking to mediamen here, Afgan said 15 candidates contested in National Assembly constituency NA-68 in the last general election and the winning candidate Mohammad Nawaz Sharif secured 140,000 votes.

The seat was later vacated and by-election was held in which the voter turnout was comparatively low and this time the winning candidate got 68 000 votes, he added.

He said the Election Commission feels that the result issued by Returning Officer for polling station number 246 carried a numerical typing mistake which was later corrected.

He said the Election Commission only issued ballot papers according to number of voters at the polling station. 7000 ballot papers were not even issued for the polling station concerned, Afgan added.

Bombers kill soldier, policeman ahead of Egypt vote campaign

CAIRO: Bombers killed a policeman and a soldier in Egypt Friday, hours before campaigning starts in presidential polls which the former army chief who deposed the elected Islamist leader is expected to win.

Militants have unleashed a wave of attacks targeting security forces since presidential frontrunner Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Mohamed Morsi in July.

The army led by the now retired field marshall also installed an interim government that has waged a deadly crackdown on Morsi´s supporters and his Muslim Brotherhood movement.

A bomb struck a traffic police kiosk near a courthouse in the north Cairo district of Heliopolis, killing one policeman and wounding four others, interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told.

The interior ministry later said the bomb had been concealed in a traffic light.

The attack came just hours after two suicide bombers attacked a checkpoint and a nearby bus outside the South Sinai provincial capital Al-Tur, security officials said.A soldier was killed and six policemen wounded by the first bomber, and five civilians wounded by the second, the officials said.

Security forces have deployed in strength to protect the resorts along the South Sinai coast that are a major plank of the country´s battered tourism sector.

Friday´s bombings came a day before the start of official campaigning in the May 26-27 presidential election which will see leftist leader Hamdeen Sabbahi as Sisi´s sole rival.

Sabbahi came third in the 2012 election which Morsi won, and is seen by supporters as the only leader representing the aspirations of those who revolted against longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.A statement from the prime minister´s officer said, meanwhile, that Friday´s violence would not undermine Egypt´s determination to hold "fair presidential and parliamentary polls".

Morsi´s Brotherhood, which swept all elections since Mubarak´s fall, is blacklisted as a "terrorist" organisation and said it will boycott the polls.

Indonesian vote to set governor on course for presidency

JAKARTA: Polling stations opened in Indonesia early Wednesday in legislative elections expected to boost the main opposition and move their popular presidential candidate a step closer to becoming the country´s next leader.

Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, known by his nickname "Jokowi", is a fresh face in a country long dominated by aloof ex-military figures and tycoons from the three-decade rule of dictator Suharto.

The 52-year-old former furniture business owner has been a political phenomenon since his meteoric rise to the capital´s top job in 2012, with his common touch -- he regularly visits Jakarta´s slums in his trademark checked shirt -- winning him a huge following.

"We see him as a success and we see him as honest... We believe he will bring a new dawn to Indonesia," said Deni Ardiansyah, a 25-year-old Jakarta shop worker.

Buoyed by his popularity, Widodo´s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has long been ahead in opinion polls for the legislative elections, and the party extended its lead after nominating him for president last month.

The polls, spread across three time zones, opened in heavy rain in the easternmost region of Papua at 7:00 am (2200 GMT Tuesday), but logistical hiccups there may force some 30 districts to delay their votes for up to three days, an election official said.

"The polls are open in the main towns, like Jayapura, but last night planes still couldn´t reach some districts in the mountains," Papua province election official Betty Wanane told AFP.

She added that the local election body was not given a large enough budget to deliver all the ballots and boxes, and that several deadlines for logistics had been missed.

Local media reported cases of candidates making last-ditch attempts to buy votes with cooking oil, sugar and other handouts in a widespread but illegal practice.

Almost half a million police officers will secure the polls, with the help of more than 20,000 soldiers and more than a million civil officers, said National Police Chief Sutarman, who goes by one name.

Pre-election violence has been largely concentrated in the western province of Aceh, where deadly shootings and arson attacks have occurred.

The day is expected to be a bad one for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono´s ruling Democratic Party, with polls putting it in fourth place after a string of corruption scandals.

The legislative elections, the fourth in Indonesia since the end of authoritarian rule in 1998, are important because they decide who can run at presidential polls on July 9.A party or coalition of parties needs 20 percent of seats in the 560-seat lower house of parliament or 25 percent of the national vote to field a candidate.

The PDI-P is the only one out of 12 parties running nationwide seen as having a chance of achieving this on its own. Others will have to form coalitions to get over the threshold and nominate a candidate.

The eastern part of the vast archipelago of 17,000 islands was the first to vote, with polling stations opening later in central and western Indonesia.

Indonesian vote to set governor on course for presidency

JAKARTA: Polling stations opened in Indonesia early Wednesday in legislative elections expected to boost the main opposition and move their popular presidential candidate a step closer to becoming the country´s next leader.

Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, known by his nickname "Jokowi", is a fresh face in a country long dominated by aloof ex-military figures and tycoons from the three-decade rule of dictator Suharto.

The 52-year-old former furniture business owner has been a political phenomenon since his meteoric rise to the capital´s top job in 2012, with his common touch -- he regularly visits Jakarta´s slums in his trademark checked shirt -- winning him a huge following.

"We see him as a success and we see him as honest... We believe he will bring a new dawn to Indonesia," said Deni Ardiansyah, a 25-year-old Jakarta shop worker.

Buoyed by his popularity, Widodo´s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has long been ahead in opinion polls for the legislative elections, and the party extended its lead after nominating him for president last month.

The polls, spread across three time zones, opened in heavy rain in the easternmost region of Papua at 7:00 am (2200 GMT Tuesday), but logistical hiccups there may force some 30 districts to delay their votes for up to three days, an election official said.

"The polls are open in the main towns, like Jayapura, but last night planes still couldn´t reach some districts in the mountains," Papua province election official Betty Wanane told AFP.

She added that the local election body was not given a large enough budget to deliver all the ballots and boxes, and that several deadlines for logistics had been missed.

Local media reported cases of candidates making last-ditch attempts to buy votes with cooking oil, sugar and other handouts in a widespread but illegal practice.

Almost half a million police officers will secure the polls, with the help of more than 20,000 soldiers and more than a million civil officers, said National Police Chief Sutarman, who goes by one name.

Pre-election violence has been largely concentrated in the western province of Aceh, where deadly shootings and arson attacks have occurred.

The day is expected to be a bad one for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono´s ruling Democratic Party, with polls putting it in fourth place after a string of corruption scandals.

The legislative elections, the fourth in Indonesia since the end of authoritarian rule in 1998, are important because they decide who can run at presidential polls on July 9.A party or coalition of parties needs 20 percent of seats in the 560-seat lower house of parliament or 25 percent of the national vote to field a candidate.

The PDI-P is the only one out of 12 parties running nationwide seen as having a chance of achieving this on its own. Others will have to form coalitions to get over the threshold and nominate a candidate.

The eastern part of the vast archipelago of 17,000 islands was the first to vote, with polling stations opening later in central and western Indonesia.

Afghans vote in landmark poll, undeterred by threats

KABUL: The voting phase of the landmark Afghan presidential election has concluded. Voting was largely peaceful on Saturday, with only isolated attacks on polling stations as a country racked by decades of chaos embarked on its first ever democratic transfer of power.

A roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded two others in the southern city of Qalat as they were returning from a polling station, while four voters were wounded in an explosion at a voting centre in the southeastern province of Logar.

There were no reports of more serious attacks so far on an election that Taliban insurgents had vowed to derail, branding it a U.S.-backed sham.

The United States, having spent $90 billion on aid and training for Afghan security forces since it helped vanquish the Taliban in 2001, could point to its success promoting democracy as a major achievement toward leaving Afghanistan as a more stable country.

The stronger the next president's mandate, the less vulnerable Afghanistan could be to instability. Even if the election is less flawed this time, it could take months - perhaps even until October - for a winner to be declared at a time when the country desperately needs a leader to stem rising violence as foreign troops prepare to leave.

Nearly 3,500 members of the US-led coalition force have been killed in Afghanistan since deployment over a decade ago.

KABUL SEALED OFF

About 12 million were eligible to vote in the election, and there were eight candidates, with former foreign ministers Abdullah Abdullah and Zalmay Rassoul, and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani the favourites.

Karzai is barred by the constitution from running for the presidency again. But, after 12 years in power, he is widely expected to retain influence through politicians loyal to him.

The Taliban warned civilians ahead of the election they would be targeted if they try to vote, and dozens died in a spate of attacks in the preceding weeks.

A veteran Associated Press photographer was killed and a senior correspondent of the same news agency was wounded on Friday when a policeman opened fire on the two women in eastern Afghanistan as they reported on preparations for the poll.

More than 350,000 Afghan troops were deployed, guarding against attacks on polling stations and voters. The capital, Kabul, was sealed off by rings of roadblocks and checkpoints.

In the city of Kandahar, cradle of the Taliban insurgency, the mood was tense. Vehicles were not allowed to move on the roads and checkpoints were set up at every intersection.

Hamida, a 20-year-old teacher working at a Kandahar polling station, said more than a dozen women turned up in the first two hours of voting and added that she expected more to come despite the threat of an attack by the Taliban.

"We are trying not to think about it," she said, only her honey-brown eyes visible through her black niqab.

Raising questions about the legitimacy of the vote even before it began, the election commission announced that at least 10 percent of polling stations were expected to be shut due to security threats, and most foreign observers left Afghanistan in the wake of a deadly attack on a hotel in Kabul last month.

The interior ministry said six officials - including an intelligence agent - were detained on Saturday for trying to rig the vote, and elsewhere several people were arrested for trying to use fake voter cards.

RISK OF DELAY

One of the chief risks is the length of time it may take to declare a new president. If none of the candidates wins over 50 percent of the vote, the two frontrunners would go into a run-off on May 28, spinning out the process into the holy month of Ramadan when life slows to a crawl.

A long delay would leave little time to complete a pact between Kabul and Washington to keep up to 10,000 US troops in the country beyond 2014, after the bulk of the American force, which currently stands at around 23,500, has pulled out.

Karzai has rejected the pact, but the three frontrunners have pledged to sign it. Without the pact, far weaker Afghan forces would be left on their own to fight the Taliban.

Uncertainty over the outcome could also stall crucial foreign aid and economic reform, foment ethnic tensions and leave a political vacuum in which the Taliban could gain ground.

The election is a landmark after 13 years of struggle to quell an insurgency that has killed at least 16,000 Afghan civilians and thousands more soldiers.

Karzai's relations with the United States became increasingly strained in recent years as Afghan casualties mounted, and he voiced frustrated that Washington was not putting enough pressure on Pakistan to stop the Taliban, who base themselves in borderlands.

Although Karzai's departure is a turning point for Afghanistan, none of his would-be successors would bring radical change, Western diplomats say.

"The only positive thing in this election is that it is necessary to save the state as it is, and therefore there is a need to transfer power one way or the other," Sarah Chayes, a South Asia expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told a media briefing on the eve of the vote.

"Whether the election will be the great transformative event that everybody expects is, I think, delusional."

Polling stations officially closed at 5:00 pm (1230 GMT), officials said, after a day without major security incidents.

But voting was set to continue for some time as voters in line at polling stations would be allowed to cast their ballot, a senior official with the Independent Election Commission said.

Obama hails 'critical' Afghan vote

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama welcomed the completion of Afghanistan's presidential vote, set to usher in the country's first democratic transfer of power, saying it was critical to ensure more international support.

Afghan voters lined up outside polling stations en masse -- with a final turnout expected to exceed 50 percent, or seven million -- to pick a successor to President Hamid Karzai for the first time since the US-led invasion in 2001.

Karzai has refused to sign a security agreement that would allow the US to keep around 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train local forces and hunt Al-Qaeda, and relations with Washington have dropped to a new low.

Afghans have taken over responsibility for security from US-led forces, and this year the last of the NATO coalition's 51,000 combat troops will pull out, leaving local forces to battle the resilient Taliban insurgency without their help.

"Millions of Afghan men and women took to the polls today with courage and commitment," US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

"This is their moment. The Afghan people secured this election. They ran this election, and most importantly, they voted in this election."

The elections "promise to usher in the first democratic transfer of power in Afghanistan's history and... represent another important milestone in Afghans taking full responsibility for their country as the United States and our partners draw down our forces," Obama said.

"These elections are critical to securing Afghanistan's democratic future, as well as continued international support."

The US president urged election officials to make their formal decision on the outcome fairly, "knowing that the most critical voices on the outcome are those of Afghans themselves."

Obama, who has had tense ties with Karzai, said "we look forward to continuing our partnership with the new government chosen by the Afghan people on the basis of mutual respect and mutual accountability."

"The United States continues to support a sovereign, stable, unified and democratic Afghanistan," he added.

Obama also paid tribute to the Americans who have lost their lives or otherwise made sacrifices in and for Afghanistan.

 

US, UN, Nato all praise for Afghans courage in landmark vote

KABUL: The United States and the UN have praised the "courage" of Afghan people who turned out in force for presidential elections, despite Taliban threats against the vote which passed off largely peacefully.

Afghan voters formed long lines outside polling stations on Saturday to pick a successor to President Hamid Karzai, with a final turnout expected to exceed 50 percent -- outstripping expectations.

US President Barack Obama congratulated the nation on the ballot -- its first democratic transfer of power -- and said it was "critical" to its future and securing continued international aid.

"Millions of Afghan men and women took to the polls today with courage and commitment," US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. "This is their moment. The Afghan people secured this election. They ran this election, and most importantly, they voted in this election. "There were no major militant attacks during polling, and organisers described the ballot as a huge success, despite complaints that a shortage of ballot papers had denied some citizens the right to vote.

However, with results not due until April 24 the country faces a testing period, and many Afghans fear a repeat of the fraud scandals that marred the last presidential election in 2009. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent in the first round, a run-off is scheduled for late May.

There is no clear favourite among the front-runners to succeed Karzai -- former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, Abdullah Abdullah, who was runner-up in the 2009 election, and former World Bank academic Ashraf Ghani.

Whoever emerges victorious must lead the fight against the Taliban without the help of US-led combat troops, and also strengthen an economy that currently relies on declining aid money.

"Today´s election and massive participation of the people have taken Afghanistan a few steps forward to peace, stability and development," Karzai said in an address to the nation Saturday. "This was a major effort of the people, our security forces, and all the officials who had a role in holding the election.

"The United Nations Security Council also commended "the participation and courage of the Afghan people to cast their ballot despite the threat and intimidation by the Taliban" and other terrorist groups. It condemned the deadly attacks which overshadowed the election campaign and urged all those involved to show patience and respect during the count.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen praised the "enthusiasm" of voters and the "outstanding job" by Afghan security forces. "This has truly been an election led by Afghans, secured by Afghans, for the future of Afghans," he said.

The final turnout could exceed seven million, the head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, said, though this was a preliminary estimate and may change. Initial predictions in 2009 proved inaccurate. Around 13.5 million people were eligible to vote, putting the estimated turnout above 50 percent -- a significant increase on 2009, when only around a third of voters cast ballots.

The open nature of the race with so many candidates in the running, coupled with a massive security operation to thwart Taliban attacks, may have contributed to the high turnout.

The Taliban had urged their fighters to target polling staff, voters and security forces, but there were no major attacks reported during the day.

Interior Minister Omar Daudzai said late Saturday that four civilians, nine police and seven soldiers had been killed in violence in the past 24 hours, but added that many attacks had been foiled, without giving further details.

Attacks or fear of Taliban intimidation had forced more than 200 of a total 6,423 voting centres to remain closed. The day before the poll, Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was shot dead by a police commander in eastern Khost province. She was the third journalist working for international media to be killed during the election campaign, after Swedish journalist Nils Horner and Sardar Ahmad of Agence France-Presse.

Afghans have taken over responsibility for security from US-led forces, and this year the last of the NATO coalition´s 51,000 combat troops will pull out, leaving local forces to battle the resilient Taliban insurgency without their help.

The country´s third presidential election will bring an end to 13 years of rule by Karzai, who has held power since the Taliban were ousted in 2001. Massive fraud and widespread violence marred Karzai´s re-election in 2009, and a disputed result this time would add to the challenges facing the new president.T

The election may offer a chance for Afghanistan to improve relations with the United States, its principal donor, after the mercurial Karzai years. Relations fell to a new low late last year when Karzai refused to sign a security agreement that would allow the US to keep around 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train local forces and hunt Al-Qaeda.

 

French voters punish Hollande in municipal vote

 

AP French Socialist Party deputy mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, right, and outgoing mayor Bertrand Delanoe smile after results were announced in the second round of the French municipal elections, in Paris on Sunday.

The French government was in full soul-searching mode on Sunday after the conservative opposition trounced the governing Socialist Party (PS) in a municipal election run-off that also yielded gains for the far-right National Front.

Voters across the country used the election for town councils and mayors to vent their frustration with President Francois Hollande’s failure to turn around the battered French economy.

From Reims in the north-east to Toulouse in the south-west and the central city of Limoges, PS mayors were shown the door as voters in dozens of municipalities decamped to former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).

Other cities that swung from left to right included Saint-Etienne, Pau and Angers. Paris, Lyon, Lille and Strasbourg bucked the trend by re-electing PS mayors, while voters in Marseille returned the UMP incumbent.

In Paris, Socialist Anne Hidalgo defeated the UMP’s Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, to become the capital’s first female mayor.

Elsewhere, the UMP was savouring its spoils, which come two months before European elections, in which the anti-immigration FN is tipped to place first or second.

Provisional results showed the UMP and other right-wing parties polling 45.91 per cent of the vote, compared with 40.57 per cent for left-wing parties, 6.84 per cent for the far right and 6.62 for independents.

“France’s top party is the UMP,” party leader Jean-Francois Cope declared.

The FN was also on the march, winning 14 or 15 municipalities according to the interior ministry, including the northern former coal mining town of Henin-Beaumont, which it won in the first round of voting on March 23.

Frejus and Beziers, two Mediterranean towns of more than 50,000 inhabitants that have been hard hit by the crisis, were among others to elect FN or FN-backed mayors.

FN leader Marine Le Pen, who has worked hard to rid the party of its extremist image, said the polls showed the party was now a viable alternative to the PS and UMP.

“Today the FN has shaken up the traditional UMP-PS duo,” she told supporters.

The party failed, however, to convert its first-round lead in some towns, such as the Forbach in the north-east, where FN vice president Florian Philippot was defeated by the Socialist incumbent, and Avignon, where the FN candidate also lost to the Socialist candidate.

Those wins provided little comfort for the Socialists, who were punished for the government’s failure to create jobs and growth, 22 months after Mr. Hollande took office.

Voter turnout plunged to a new record low on Sunday. Ipsos polling company estimated a turnout of 62 per cent, down from 63.6 per cent in the first round, which was already an historic low for a municipal election.

Apathy was particularly acute among left-wing voters, who have been disillusioned with Mr. Hollande’s shift from traditional leftist tax-and-spend policies to a more business-friendly approach.

Former Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal, who is the mother of Mr. Hollande’s four children, expressed alarm at the results, calling them a “very severe warning”.

Mr. Hollande, who is expected to reshuffle his cabinet in the coming days, promised during the week to “draw a lesson” from the results but has also vowed to stick to his current course of trying to restore lost competitiveness.

One of those whose position is seen as vulnerable is Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who acknowledged Sunday a share in the government’s “collective” responsibility for the election result.

“It’s a clear message which must be fully heard,” Mr. Ayrault said.

Polls open in Turkey local vote seen as referendum

ANKARA: Polls opened Sunday in Turkey for municipal elections that are seen as a referendum on the rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has faced anti-government protests and a major corruption scandal.

More than 50 million voters were to cast their ballots for mayors and local assemblies at almost 200,000 pollings stations, pitting Erdogan´s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party against secular, nationalist and other groups.

The polls opened first in eastern Turkey and will open later in the west.

Vote intelligently, says apolitical Aamir Khan

 

Aamir Khan is guarded about sharing his views on any political party and when it comes to the new Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) the actor-filmmaker prefers to wait and watch. Meanwhile, he has urged the youth to step out and vote intelligently in the polls.

At a press conference at his residence on his 49th birthday Friday, Aamir was asked which party he is favouring and he said: "I am not supporting any political party's campaign, nor do I support any political party."

"It's a democratic country and I believe each person should take their own decision and must go out and vote intelligently," he added.

Aamir Khan speaks about Satyamev Jayate1/6


Looking fit as a fiddle, the "3 Idiots" and "Dhoom 3" actor believes the youth especially must cast their vote.

"Every person of voting age should vote," he added.

Asked to comment on Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, Aamir said: "AAP is a new party. Let's see what they do. As I said, I don't support any political party, but if there's an important cause, we all come forward."

True to his word, he is raising various issues on his well-researched chat show "Satyamev Jayate".

Aamir had earlier lent support to Anna Hazare's anti-corruption movement.