No sign of voters on election day in Afghanistan despite official claims

The absence of voters witnessed by The Times yesterday in this center on the edge of the capital was replicated across the country, with fearful Afghans staying away from the polls after repeated threats from the Taliban. But the polling station in Pul-e-Charki painted a suspiciously different picture. In total 5,530 votes had already been cast for the Presidential Elections, according to the records being kept by the election staff beside each ballot box. In each box there were an oddly uniform 500 to 510 votes. More impressive still, some 3,025 of the ballots were women's votes. Assuming that the last voter disappeared at least two minutes before the Times arrived at 7.55am, the staff working on the 12 separate ballot boxes at the site must have been processing at least 100 voters per minute since polling began.