Afghan officials cancel 1.3 million votes

Afghan election authorities have thrown out 1.3 million votes, 23 per cent of the 5.6 million ballots cast in last month's parliamentary election, officials have said. "The valid vote is 4,265,347, and the invalid vote is around 1,300,000," Fazil Ahmad Manawi, the head of the Independent Election Commission, said on Wednesday. Many observers had hoped that the parliamentary elections would show the Afghan government's commitment to reforming its corrupt bureaucracy. "These elections will do little to alter Afghanistan's system of patronage politics, and will certainly not alter the balance of power," a Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. The official said the parliamentary poll represented "politics as usual, just as corrupt and just as violent as last year". The 2009 presidential vote was widely criticized by the country's international donors amid allegations of electoral fraud - included ballot stuffing and voter intimidation - that invalidated 1.5 million votes, mostly for Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.