Muslim hate of elections

MUSLIM HATE OF ELECTIONS!

Around 170 are killed and injured in Afghanistan after polling stations were hit by suicide bombers as Taliban claims responsibility for targeting the ‘fake election’

•    Hundreds of Afghans have been killed or wounded in deadly attacks during the country's elections Saturday
•    They had been turning out for Afghanistan's awaited legislative elections - for which nine million registered
•    Technical glitches and volunteers turning up late also caused severe delays in voting across the state
•    The number of casualties in the capital Kabul has now been raised to 19 dead and at least 100 wounded

Daily Mail
By DANYAL HUSSAIN and FAITH RIDLER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 10:21 EDT, 20 October 2018

Around 170 Afghans were killed or wounded in poll-related violence on Saturday - as the Taliban claims responsibility for targeting the 'fake election.'

In the latest attack, a suicide bomber blew up a Kabul polling centre, killing at least 15 people and wounding 20, police said, taking the number of casualties across the capital to 19 dead and nearly 100 wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but the Taliban said earlier it had carried out more than 300 attacks on the 'fake election' across the country.

Violence also disrupted voting in the northern city of Kunduz, where a senior health official said three people died and 39 were wounded after more than 20 rockets rained down on the provincial capital.

An Independent Election Commission employee was killed and seven others were missing after the Taliban attacked a polling centre several kilometres from Kunduz city, destroying ballot boxes, provincial IEC director Mohammad Rasoul Omar said.

Eight explosions were recorded in the eastern province of Nangarhar, with two people killed and five wounded, the provincial governor's spokesman confirmed.

The interior ministry put the overall casualty toll - including civilians and security forces - slightly lower at 160, with 27 civilians killed and 100 wounded.

Afghan election workers began counting votes on Saturday evening following the partial legislative ballot.

There were 193 attacks across the country on Saturday, which the ministry said was half the number recorded on the day of the 2014 presidential election.

In 401 polling centres, technical and organizational problems stopped voters casting their ballot, government officials said.

Abdul Badi Sayad, chairman of Independent Election Commission, said the voting process will continue until Sunday in those places where election officers or election material arrived late.

Police officers were also ambushed in central Ghor province. At least four were killed in an explosion, although other reports put the death toll at 11, the BBC reported.

Despite the threat of violence, large numbers of voters showed up at polling centres in major cities, where they waited hours for them to open.

Turn out in rural districts was not clear, however.

Initial figures showed at least 1.5 million voters turned up at polling centres in 27 provinces, election organisers said - a fraction of the nearly nine million voter registrations.

The election commission, which has been skewered over its preparations for the long-delayed ballot, said they would extend voting until Sunday for 401 polling centres after hiccups with voter registration lists, biometric verification devices and staffing.

University student Mohammad Alem said he felt 'frustrated' after spending more than three hours trying to vote in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, only to discover his name was not on the registration list.

'There also were some problems with the biometric devices because they were already running out of charge,' he said.

After waiting four hours at a polling centre, Tabish Forugh tweeted he had not seen 'even remotely similar... chaos' at previous elections.

At a polling station in crowded west Kabul, Khoda Baksh said he arrived nearly two hours early to cast his vote, dismissing Taliban threats of violence.

'We don't care about their threats. The Taliban are threatening us all the time,' said 55-year-old Baksh, who said he wanted to see a new generation of politicians take power in Afghanistan's 249-seat Parliament.

'He bemoaned the current Parliament dominated by warlords and corrupt elite. They have done zero for us.'

The Defense Ministry said it had increased its deployment of National Security Forces to 70,000 from the original 50,000 to protect the country's 21,000 polling stations.

Almost nine million people registered to vote in the parliamentary election, which is more than three years late.
But attacks across the country on Saturday are likely to deter many from turning up at the nearly 5,000 polling centres.

Wasima Badghisy, a commission member, called voters 'very, very brave' and said a turnout of five million would be a success.

Stakes were high in these elections for Afghans, who hoped to reform Parliament, challenging the dominance of warlords and the politically corrupt and replacing them with a younger, more educated generation of politicians.

Hundreds of people were killed or wounded in the months leading up to the poll. The killing of a powerful police chief in the southern province of Kandahar on Thursday further eroded confidence in the ability of security forces to protect voters.

Voting in Kandahar has been delayed by a week following the attack.

The Taliban claimed it carried out 318 attacks on voting locations, checkpoints and military sites throughout Saturday.

Despite the risks, President Ashraf Ghani urged 'every Afghan, young and old, women and men' to exercise their right to vote, after casting his ballot in Kabul.

Photos posted on social media showed scores of men and women clutching their identification documents lining up outside voting centres amid a heavy security presence.

A woman dressed in a burqa leaving a polling centre in Mazar-i-Sharif told AFP she had been worried about 'security incidents', but decided to vote anyway.

'We have to defy the violence,' Hafiza, 57, said.

'In previous years we were not happy with the elections, our votes were sold out.'

The Taliban had earlier issued several warnings in the days leading up to the poll, calling on candidates to withdraw from the race and for voters to stay home.

At least 10 candidates out of more than 2,500 contesting the lower-house election have been killed.

Most of those standing are political novices, and include doctors, mullahs and journalists. Those with the deepest pockets are expected to win.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which has spearheaded international efforts to keep Afghan organisers on track, on Friday called on voters to 'exercise their constitutional right to vote'.

The poll is seen as a crucial test for next year's presidential election and an important milestone ahead of a UN meeting in Geneva in November where Afghanistan is under pressure to show progress on 'democratic processes'.

Preliminary results will be released on November 10 but there are concerns they could be thrown into turmoil if the biometric verification devices are broken, lost or destroyed.

Votes cast without the controversial machines will not be counted, the IEC has said.