Thinner media coverage pickings in the past 24 hours. Will be interesting to see what happens today.
Eric Bjornlund, a DI co-founder, appeared on PBS’ Worldfocus, which is also carried by The Huffington Post and Herald de Paris
Jim Moody, our head of delegation, was quoted in The Washington Times by David W. Jones:
Jim Moody, a former U.S. congressman who headed a 60-member observer group from Democracy International Inc., told The Washington Times that more analysis will be required to finalize conclusions.
"Our preliminary conclusion is that it is conceivable that this was a fair election," he said. "It is hard to tell. A lot of people voted properly."
..
Mr. Moody said his delegation, which was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, observed proper voting at a number of polling places in Kabul and other major cities, "but we heard some pretty horrific stories" about irregularities in more remote areas. "Whether they were enough to sway the outcome, we don’t know."
"There was good and bad," he added. "There were a lot of security issues," including Taliban threats to cut off the fingers of anyone who voted. "Bombs went off." Even members of his observer group had to wear bulletproof vests, though none was hurt. "But some of them couldn’t get out to their polling places," he said.
Mr. Moody added that there were "some" cases of fraud or ballot stuffing, "but whether it was enough [to change the outcome] we can’t be sure."
Nevertheless, he said, he found the voting "very uplifting. This is a country that has never before had anything resembling democracy. And here they were, running their own election."
The piece also quoted DI:
Democracy International described the credibility of the elections as "vital to the consolidation of democracy in Afghanistan and a critical component in the Afghan peoples ongoing struggle for peace."
Interesting piece from Aunohita Mojumdar, an Indian freelance journalist based in Kabul, who wrote on the website EurasiaNet:
While the lack of official statistics from the IEC is certainly a constraint for diplomatic missions and international observers, even the right questions are not being asked at this stage, experts say.
Of half a dozen observer groups and a plethora of diplomatic representatives, only Democracy International (DI), pointed out the problems related to the IEC’s decision to withhold the vote count until five days after Election Day, terming it "unfortunate." DI has noted that releasing the partial results would be a way to enhance confidence in the process by increasing transparency.
“Violence and intimidation disenfranchised voters in a significant portion of the country,” US-based election monitor Democracy International said.
“In more secure areas, however, Afghans generally were able to cast votes freely,” it said.
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