Afghan minority leader says government blocking his voters

[azara]

(Reuters) - The Afghan government has deliberately shut polling
stations under a pretext of insecurity in relatively safe areas where
the Hazara ethnic group dominates, their leader said on Thursday.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68F17920100916

Millions of Afghans will go to the polls on Saturday to choose from
over 2,500 candidates running for 249 seats in the country's wolesi
jirga, or the upper house of the parliament.

More than 30 candidates from Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq's party, Hezb-i-
Wahdat, are standing in the election in a bid to win more
parliamentary seats and influence in Karzai's government. The lawmaker
is also running for re-election.

"I believe this year's election has already been engineered by the
government who want to help their favorite candidates to win," Mohaqiq
told Reuters at his residence in Kabul. "Certainly there are political
maneuvers from people in the government against different ethnic
(groups)."

The Afghan Independent Election Commission announced last week that
nearly 15 percent of planned polling stations will not open because of
poor security, mostly in the eastern and southern parts of the country
where violence is the worst.

But Mohaqiq said many polling stations in relatively stable areas of
northern and central Afghanistan, from where he hopes to win major
support, have been deliberately closed in an attempt to block Hazara
votes.

"It is a political blow to me by closing many polling sites in Bamyan
where security is not an issue," Mohaqiq said, referring to a Hazara-
dominated province in central Afghanistan. "Thousands of voters will
be deprived of votes."

Election security is a major concern with the insurgent Taliban
threatening to disrupt the poll, although the government says it can
provide total safety with the support of over 150,000 foreign troops
present in the country.

ELECTORAL BETRAYAL

Mohaqiq also echoed widespread concern about vote-rigging.

"Possible fraud from government workers who may stuff ballot boxes in
volatile areas is my concern too," he said.

The mainly Shi'ite Hazaras have been marginalized for centuries by
Sunni rulers in Kabul, and thousands were massacred under the
1996-2001 rule of the Taliban, dominated by the Sunni Pashtun ethnic
majority.

Although the Hazara numerically would be hard-pressed to threaten
Karzai politically, they could do so if allied with other minorities.
Karzai, a Pashtun, has managed ethnic relations by appointing minority
militia leaders and their allies to positions in his government.

In last year's presidential elections, Karzai had promised minority
leaders cabinet seats, Mohaqiq said. But several Hazara cabinet
candidates were then turned down by mainly Pashtun parliamentarians in
what Mohaqiq calls a betrayal.

"We were the ones who helped Karzai win the election, and we are the
ones who can topple him," he told a crowd of mainly Hazara people who
came to hear him speak at a gathering west of Kabul. "I am here to
defend your rights, trampled for decades."

The crowd, many of whom held up posters of Mohaqiq, erupted into
applause and began chanting slogans.

"Our dearest leader, we will support you," they shouted.

He had roared into the area in a convoy of nearly a dozen four-wheel
drive vehicles through a dry riverbed that serves as the road in an
area without them. Bodyguards blocked the road to traffic to escort
him to the speaking venue.

"This time I will make sure your vote will not go in vain and will be
used for the improvement of your condition," he said.

(Editing by Bryson Hull)