Afghanistan Times
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AT News Report
KABUL: The fourth presidential election after the Taliban collapse in a 2001 US military invasion was held Saturday amid dozens of problems across the country.
The main problems counted by voters were in the biometrics system performance, mistakes in the voting sheets as some voters said their names were not found and lack of electoral observers, which could probably overshadow the race transparency.
Besides, the lower turnout in the election was another element that could cause harm election’s credibility.
However, the independent election commission says that voters cast their votes in 75 per cent of polling centers.
Election was held in tight security pleasures in the capital and provinces, as Taliban had earlier vowed to target polling stations, asking the people to stay away from the stations.
There were no foreign monitors and in some polling centers in Kabul, even the number of Afghan observers was not significant.
Voters said besides a low turnout, technical problems also caused election reliability be hurt.
People’s reluctance comes while security forces were well prepared in guarding voting centers, and according to electoral data, some nine million people had registered for voting.
In a Kabul voting center, only 200 women cast their votes. Most of them left the center without voting as their names were not found in the voting lists.
Electoral watchdogs also confirmed that voting centers did not start working on time, some observers were not allowed to monitor the events, problems in the voter lists, technical problems in the biometrics system and other problems faced the process.
