WASHINGTON: Reports of fraud and intimidation in Afghanistan's presidential election continued to mount Saturday, with anecdotal, but widespread accounts of ballot-box stuffing, a lack of impartiality among election workers and voters casting ballots for others.Director Jandad Spinger, Foundation for free and transparent elections in Afghanistan said that over 7000 observers of his group told that the ballot boxes were already stuffed, while bogus voting and other irregularities continued.US newspaper said that European groups have also pointed out many discrepancies, while in several provinces the polling stations remained shut fearing violence. Karzai government has denied any sort of fraud committed in the elections.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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