Abdullah: Half of Afghan ballots are ‘suspicious’

By Mick Krever, CNN

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah alleged massive fraud in his country’s election in an interview with CNN’s Michael Holmes, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Tuesday.

“Half of the ballot papers used are considered to be suspicious based on standard critereas [sic], universal critereas of free and fair elections,” Abdullah, the country’s former foreign minister, said from Kabul.

Preliminary results from last month’s election were announced yesterday, and showed Abdullah’s opponent, former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani, with the lead.

Ghani on Tuesday said the preliminary results were “legitimate and credible.”

“There is an impasse, and we will not be satisfied without clean votes being announced,” Abdullah said. “The turnout is shown to be eight million – over eight million people, eight million votes. That is very, very inflated numbers to say the least.”

Afghan faith in the electoral process, he told Holmes, “is not there.”

“The people of Afghanistan will not trust them anymore because of the involvement of their chief executive in systematic fraud in favor of one candidate. That is the reason for lack of faith or trust.”

The country’s current leader, President Hamid Karzai, must share in some of the blame, Abdullah said.

“He didn't remain neutral as he had promised the people of Afghanistan.”

“He put pressure on the commissions and also used his authority in favor of one party.”