1 of 3 | Afghan men cast their ballots for the parliamentary elections in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Saturday, September 18, 2010. Militants struck throughout the country trying to stop the voting. UPI/Hossein Fatemi |
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WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- It's no surprise that results for September parliamentary elections in Afghanistan are delayed given the number of candidates competing, Washington said.
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission has partial tallies for most of the contests in the September vote for the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of parliament. Preliminary results are expected by Oct. 17, a delay of about a week. IEC officials said the delay was due in part to allegations of fraud, CNN reported.
P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said the news comes as no surprise given the number of candidates competing for seats in the September contest.
"We knew going in, given the relatively large number of candidates for a relatively small number of seats, that if there were 10 candidates for every one seat, that nine people would end the election unhappy and many would contest," he said during his regular press briefing.
More than 2,500 candidates competed for the 249 seats in the Wolesi Jirga. The number of women vying for the estimated 64 seats reserved for women rose from 328 in 2005 to 406 for the elections.
"I don't think we're troubled by the fact that there's been a week's delay," the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he spoke with U.S. President Barack Obama earlier in the week to discuss "the strategic vision for long-term U.S.-Afghan relations."
Karzai said he would like his country to have control over security operations by 2014, three years after U.S. military forces begin to leave the country.
