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Afghanistan

Afghanistan hit by kidnappings on eve of vote

17 Sep 2010 15:55:50 GMT

* Rash of abductions despite tight security

* Afghan capital quiet under clampdown

* Karzai urges high turnout for poll

By Tim Gaynor and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A rash of election-related kidnappings hit Afghanistan on Friday despite tightened security on the eve of a parliamentary poll the Taliban has vowed to disrupt.

Officials said 19 abductions were carried out on Friday alone, as reports of violence and kidnapping spread from Afghanistan's west to east. The capital, Kabul, was relatively quiet under a security clampdown.

Noor Mohammad Noor, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC), said a candidate had been kidnapped in eastern Laghman province. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

Qari Safiullah, another candidate in western Herat, had been missing for the past three days along with three campaign workers, Safiullah's family told Reuters.

Eight IEC officials and 10 campaign workers were kidnapped in northwestern Badghis province.

The abductions came despite security preparations being ramped up across the country before the vote, a key test after a deeply flawed presidential ballot last year, which looks set to test the resolve of voters in the face of Taliban threats.

Almost 300,000 Afghan soldiers and police are providing security for the poll, backed by some 150,000 foreign troops. On Thursday, the hardline Islamist Taliban renewed its threat to attack foreign and Afghan targets and urged voters to stay away.

"We should try to do our best under the current circumstances. It is very important that the Afghan people come out and vote," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told reporters.

Preliminary results from Saturday's voting will not be known until Oct. 8 at the earliest, with final results not expected before Oct. 30.

Significant security failures would be a major setback, with Washington watching closely before U.S. President Barack Obama conducts a war strategy review in December which will probably examine the pace and scale of U.S. troop withdrawals.

In northern Kunduz, Afghan and NATO-led troops killed a Taliban commander who was planning election attacks, the coalition said. A mosque to be used as a polling station was hit by rocket fire in Logar, south of Kabul, IEC officials said.

Observers fear security worries could lead to a low voter turnout, as it did last year when the Taliban staged dozens of attacks but failed to disrupt the process entirely.

However, voter turnout was very low in the south and east where Pashtuns, Afghanistan's main ethnic group, dominate and where the Taliban has its strongest support.

CREDIBILITY

The vote is also a test of credibility for Karzai after last year's poll, which he won despite a third of his votes being thrown out as fakes. He has since promised to fight the rampant graft that is a big source of friction with his Western allies.

Washington believes corruption weakens the central government and its ability to build up institutions like the Afghan security forces, which in turn determines when Western troops in Afghanistan will be able to leave.

The West has been seeking to temper expectations of the poll. U.N. envoy Staffan De Mistura said this week the election would not be perfect but it would be an improvement on the "massive fraud" of last year.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said Washington was "not looking for perfection," acknowledging the potential for fraud.

"The most significant thing about the elections is obvious: they are taking place," Holbrooke told reporters in Islamabad.

Afghanistan's U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) has warned of a "disputatious" process with nearly 2,500 candidates competing for 249 seats in the wolesi jirga, or lower house of parliament. Thousands of complaints are expected.

Last year's election and the possibility of more widespread fraud have left an underlying cynicism among many voters who feel the system benefits only the political elite.

"Democracy, what's that?" said Darya Khan, a 40-year-old driver. "I'm not going to vote, the people who get elected are just in it for themselves. They are not working to benefit the country, they are not thinking about the poor." (Additional reporting by Sayed Salahuddin and Hamid Shalizi in Kabul and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Bryson Hull and Charles Dick)