Vote Count Begins In Afghanistan

Vote counting in Afghanistan's presidential election got under way Thursday, five days after a landmark vote meant to cement a new era of stability after more than two decades of strife.

The head of the Afghan-U.N. electoral commission cut the seal on the first box to be opened in the capital, Kabul, to kick off the tallying process there. Counting began earlier Thursday in the northeastern city of Kunduz.

Officials had stalled the count while a panel of foreign experts sifted through several dozen complaints of alleged irregularities from the 16 candidates, including front-running incumbent Hamid Karzai.

None of their complaints appear serious enough to invalidate final results expected at the end of October.

Meanwhile, the State Department said Wednesday that personnel from a private U.S. security firm in Afghanistan have engaged in "aggressive behavior" while protecting President Hamid Karzai.

Ballot boxes have flooded in by road, air and even donkey from across the rugged, impoverished country to counting centers that will determine the identity of the country's first popularly elected head of state.

Karzai, who enjoys strong international backing and is seeking to bridge the war-ravaged nation's deep ethnic divides, is widely tipped to triumph, possibly with the absolute majority needed to avoid a run-off.

Election organizers say they will release rolling results, but it was unclear when the first figures will emerge or how soon they might declare a winner.

Not all of the votes have been retrieved yet from some of the far-flung regions, and the count may take time even after they do. Most election workers have received only a few hours of training.

Election spokeswoman Silvana Puizina said counting began in Kunduz and perhaps other regional centers on Thursday morning.

Staff in Kabul were given a final drill on procedures before Zakim Shah, the president of the Joint Electoral Management Body, snipped the green seal on a plastic box containing hundreds of ballots to begin the process there.

Still, many election centers will likely close for Friday, the first day of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, Puizina said.

The chances for a solid result improved following the appointment of a panel of three foreign experts to investigate complaints from Karzai's rivals.

The panel said Wednesday it was forced to quarantine ballots from only about 10 polling stations, indicating that any problems with the vote may be limited.

The probe prompted many of Karzai's 15 challengers to back off from a threat not to recognize the outcome. Ethnic Uzbek strongman Abdul Rashid Dostum on Thursday became the latest candidate to abandon a possible boycott.

Craig Jenness, a Canadian lawyer on the panel, said the group had received 43 complaints by a Tuesday deadline and had given candidates until Thursday to submit additional complaints.

But he said the vote tally would not be held up by the additional complaints.

Many of the complaints have focused on the ink. Election staff were supposed to mark voters' left thumbs with indelible ink, but some apparently used pens meant for marking the ballots or ink meant for stamping them instead.

A spokesman for ethnic Hazara candidate Mohammed Mohaqeq said he filed objections over polling stations that ran out of ballots and a dearth of voting centers in west Kabul, where many Hazaras live.

Still, the election was a clear triumph for the massive security operation mounted to protect it from militant attack.

Lt. Gen. David Barno, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said the lack of major violence over the weekend and the enthusiastic voter turnout were a "resounding defeat" for Taliban and al Qaeda rebels.

"This turning point spells the end of more than two decades of the rule of the gun in this nation and confirms the bright hope of all the Afghan people in a democratic future centered on the rule of law," he told reporters in Kabul on Wednesday.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said U.S. concerns about inappropriate activities by some guards from the security firm, DynCorp, have been passed on to company officials.

Mike Dickerson, of the Computer Sciences Corp., the parent company of DynCorp, said the firm's employees are working closely with State Department officials to do "the best possible job in a very difficult, dangerous and challenging environment."

He said the employees will continue to work closely with the State Department to adjust procedures as necessary, "keeping in mind the utmost importance of the mission."

The State Department's bureau of diplomatic security has been responsible for Karzai's protection since 2002. DynCorp personnel have assisted in that task but the State Department provides overall supervision.

"It's a very difficult mission. It's a very dangerous mission," Boucher said. Less than a month ago, Karzai was the target of an assassination attempt when a rocket was fired at his helicopter near the city of Gardez. He escaped injury.