Several polling sites run out of ballot papers

KABUL (Pajhwok): Hundreds of people had to wait in long lines in front of voting centres in various provinces due to a shortage of ballot papers, officials said.

A number of voting centres in Bamyan, Takhar, Nangarhar, Daikundi, Samangan, Badakhshan, Kabul and Herat provinces ran out of the papers.

Bamyan Governor Ghulam Ali Wahdat said several centres in Punjab and Yakawlang districts were without ballot papers.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News the defence minister had assured him to airlift the papers to the province. Bamyan electoral body head, Aziz Ahmad Rassouli, confirmed the problem.

Fatima, 60, who visited a polling station for voting, regretted: “I waited for three hours here, but even now, ballot papers are not available.”

Meanwhile, polling centres in the Ahand Dara area of Takhar, Darqad and Kalafgan districts experienced similar problems.  But the Independent Election Commission (IEC) office head, Syed Roohullah, linked the problem to rush at some voting centres.

Separately, residents of western Herat province also suffered a shortage of ballot papers. Governor Syed Fazlullah Wahidi acknowledged election materials were yet to reach some parts of the province due to rainy weather.

The issue also inconvenienced voters in the Momand Dara district of eastern Nangarhar province, where many people were kept waiting.

In central Kabul, ballot papers were exhausted in the Dwazda Imam area of Paghman district. The 600 papers shifted there were used instantly. Many people are waiting for the arrival of ballot papers.

Muhammad Husain, a resident of Dasht-i-Archi, complained Pul-i-Khushk and Guzar-i-Mahdavia voting centres in the 13^th police district of the capital also lacked the materials.

Dr. Shah Waliullah Adib, the governor of Badakhshan, put the number of eligible voters at more than 700,000. But there was a shortfall of 100,000 in the papers sent to the province, he said.  

A provincial council runner, Khush Qadam, put the number of eligible voters in his area at 9,500, but only 1,500 ballot papers had been sent there.

But Badakhshan IEC office head, Abdul Malik Hanifi, said its main office had allocated election materials to the province keeping in mind the number of voting centres there. 

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