Voting officials working to distribute votes

Albuquerque News.Net
Thursday 22nd October, 2009

Ballots and voting kits are being distributed across Afghanistan by the UN, in preparation for the November 7th runoff election.

President Hamid Karzai will face former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah in the run-off.

On Wenesday, Karzai bowed to US and EU pressure to accept another election and to acknowledge there had been a shortfall in the 50 percent voting threshold needed for victory.

The UN has now called on election monitors called to ensure there is no repeat of the widespread fraud that affected the first round of voting in August.

UN backed observers threw out nearly a third of Karzai's votes because of fraud.

The ballot needs to be organised with little more than two weeks to spare, posing large challenges in the face of winter snows and the growing Taliban insurgency.

Voting kits now need to be sent to all provincial capitals, from where they will be delivered to thousands of polling stations by all transport means, including horse and donkey.

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