Afghanistan releases 'final' election results

Results for Ghazni province are withheld because a fair tally is considered impossible. Protests break out over the disqualification of some candidates.

By Laura King
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
November 24, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan

Afghanistan's main electoral body on Wednesday released what were billed as the final results of September's trouble-plagued parliamentary election. But as with so many things here, final doesn't mean over with.

Results for one of the country's 34 provinces -- Ghazni, south of the capital, Kabul -- were withheld because violence, intimidation and fraud were considered so rampant that election officials decided a fair tally was impossible.

Even as the Independent Election Commission was announcing the rest of the results, supporters of some candidates who had been disqualified days earlier by a watchdog body staged angry street demonstrations in Kabul and elsewhere. No serious violence was immediately reported.

Meanwhile, confusion reigned over a claim by the country's attorney general, Mohammad Ishaq Aloko -- whose jurisdiction in electoral matters is unclear -- that he had ordered the suspension of two senior election officials while they were investigated on possible criminal charges.

(More here.)