Fraud can't be ruled out at Afghanistan's run-off elections

Kabul, Oct. 23 (ANI): While a large scale swindle is unlikely to hit Afghanistan's run-off elections set for as soon as November 7, the risk of a fraud cannot be completely ruled out, experts say.

"None of us want to see a repeat of what happened in the first election. Can we stop fraud? No, we cannot, but we can reduce it," the New York Times quoted Kai Eide, United Nations Special Representative, as saying. owever, continuing threats from insurgents, subfreezing temperatures and a deep sense among Afghans that there is little reason to vote a second time may plummet the voter turnout significantly. Many Afghans believe the elections are over," Eide said.he turnout in the first round, which as later marred by massive corruption claims, was about 38 percent.

In the first round of Afghanistan's presidential elections, some of the worst fraud occurred at so-called ghost balloting sites, which never opened but where thousands of votes were reported.

Both Afghani and International officials are taking steps to try to minimize the fraud in the next round, which will be a far simpler election.

The ballot will have just two candidates' names instead of the 41 in the first round, and there are no provincial council elections this time.

In the first round, there were 6,300 polling places; in the second round the number is expected to be closer to 5,800. (ANI)