Afghans React to Vote Fraud

The BBC has collected testimonials from Afghan citizens on their country’s troubled election. A university student says he survived an encounter with the Taliban only to find a corrupt policeman at his polling place who “asked me to give him my card so that he can vote for me.” He ended up not voting.

Baseer Farahi on the BBC:

I was going out to vote. On my way to the polling station I stumbled across a group of Taliban. They stopped me and asked me where I was going. I said I was going to the doctors. They said, no, you are going to vote and we’ll cut your finger off if you do that.

Still, I went to the polling station, where a policeman asked me to give him my card so that he can vote for me. I didn’t. I saw the dishonesty and decided against risking my finger.

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U.S. Army / Spc. Matthew Freire

An Afghan puts his identification card in his wallet after voting at a polling site in the city of Khost.