latest world business news

The Free and Fair Election Foundation (FEF) of Afghanistan termed the outlook of the Saturday's parliamentary election as "extensive irregularities" and urged the IEC "to ensure the integrity of the rest of the electoral process". Some of the monitoring groups also raised serious concerns about electoral fraud. The FEF's Nader Nadery told the BBC it was to be welcomed that more people had voted than expected and that casualties from attacks were lower than anticipated. But he said there were many problems with the indelible ink used to stop multiple voting, with proxy votes, interference by local power brokers and with a large amount of intimidation. Meanwhile, the bodies of three members of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) kidnapped in Balkh province during voting on Saturday have been recovered. Taliban militants had vowed to disrupt the vote for the lower houses of parliament. The discovery of the bodies means at least 17 peopl...

At least 10 people were killed in Afghanistan during election to the parliament of the country on Saturday. Taliban unleashed country wide attacks to disrupt a poll that is testing the credibility of the government and security forces. Voters appeared hesitant to go to polling stations after a series of rocket strikes across the country. In the worst attack, police said the Taliban killed one Afghan soldier and six pro-government militiamen in a raid on a security outpost next to a polling station in northern Baghlan province. Glenn Cowan, co-founder of U.S.-based observers Democracy International, said turnout felt "about the same" as 2009, when about 4 million Afghans cast valid votes. "It was about the same pace this time," he said an hour before polls were due to close. The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, an independent watchdog, estimated last year's turnout at around 35 percent. There are 11.4 million eligible voters this time. Signi...