Taliban kidnap 18 election workers, campaigners

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

HERAT, Afghanistan — The Taliban have kidnapped eight Afghan election officials and 10 campaign workers ahead of weekend polls, an official said Friday.

"They were kidnapped last night by the Taliban," the head of the Independent Election Commission in northwestern Bagdhis province, Abdul Rahman, told AFP.

Afghanistan is due to go to the polls on Saturday to elect 249 members of the lower house of parliament, in a poll the militants have promised to disrupt with violence and intimidation.

A Taliban spokesman told AFP on Thursday that polling centres, election workers and security forces would be targeted on polling day, and warned that voters who dare to try to cast ballots "will get hurt".


Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hXIpsWafPWq1KIP_HWR_B0Qb_Izw

[Turborama]

1. Abductions hit Afghan poll build-up (at least 2 candidates have been abducted now)

Taliban fighters are believed to have abducted more than 20 people linked to Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, due to be held on Saturday amid tight security.

At least two candidates are among the missing, who also include election officials and campaign workers, officials said. One candidate was snatched in the eastern province of Laghman, while another has been missing for three days in western Herat province, his family have said.

Afghans are due to go to the polls on Saturday to elect 249 parliamentarians in an election opposed by the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country. The Taliban warned on Thursday that polling centres, election workers and security forces would be targeted, and said that voters who tried to cast ballots "would get hurt".

"There certainly has been intimidation of a whole variety of people who are engaged in the political process," Andy Campbell, country director of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs - one of the organisations monitoring the Afghan elections - told Al Jazeera.

Full article: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/201091791342186339.html

[Turborama]

2. Track violence and threats against Afghan candidates and their supporters with this interactive map.

This map tracks recent incidents of violence and intimidation against parliamentary candidates, their campaign workers, volunteers and supporters, and other members of the population who might participate in the election. To let Al Jazeera know about new or unreported incidents, click the "Send Feedback" button.

Red markers indicate attacks, yellow markers indicate threats, and purple markers indicate violence or intimidation committed by campaigns themselves or members of the government.

Most of the violence and threats have been attributed by the media and election monitors to the Taliban, though this is a broad description. Some of the threats have also been attributed to the Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin, a political and armed group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former member of the mujahideen who fought against the Soviet invasion in the 1980s.

The majority of the intimidation and attacks catalogued here have taken place in the insecure southeastern regions of the country, in provinces such as Logar, Paktika, Ghazni and Khost.

The map also contains blue markers for each of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, indicating whether the number of female candidates has increased or decreased since the last parliamentary election in 2005. Though the total number of female candidates has risen from 335 to 413, this gain has been largely limited to Kabul Province, which has seen an increase of 55.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/09/201091791450529265.html

Larger version with more details: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&msid=115608332225732777120.0004905f1c5acd2bf3569&ll=34.179998,67.741699&spn=8.176112,14.919434&z=6&source=embed