TALKING POINTS

Spokesman: Good morning, the briefing will be conducted jointly by Mr. Sultan Baheen, who is the spokesman for JEMB [Joint Electoral Management Body] and by myself, but we will also count on the two spokespeople from the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior, who will you give an update on the security situation.

I will just begin by saying that polling opened throughout the country this morning, preliminary indications is that a good number of voters are going to the polling stations. As of 9 o’clock this morning, we only have reports of one polling station that did not open and that is in Nuristan, as a result of flooding in that particular place. As you can well imagine polling stations are open in very far away places, so in the course of the day we will be getting additional updates, which we will be sharing with you.

Before we invite the MOD [Ministry of Defence] and MOI [Ministry of Interior] to give you an update on security, I would like to tell you that voting has also begun in Pakistan and Iran. Pakistan is half an hour ahead of us here. The first Afghan to vote was a young woman, 19 years of age in Islamabad. Her name is Muqadasa Sidiqi.

We would like to invite the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior to give you an update on the overnight security situation and as of this morning.

Ministry of Defence Spokesman General Zaher Azimi: Approximately one hour ago, there was an attack on ANA [Afghan National Army] forces outside of the Kabul ring of security and four people were injured, three were ANA.

There is a report of an attack in Farah province, it was RPG [rocket propelled grenade] attack, but outside the city and we have no casualties. The voting is going on as normal and people are going to the voting stations and voting for the candidate they like.

As decided before security forces are staying outside of the polling station - 200, 400, 600 metres from the polling station.

Ministry of Interior Spokesman Lutfullah Mashal: Good morning ladies and gentlemen, first I will brief you in English and than Pashtu. After we had a very quiet and peaceful night, a very good beginning for the election, we had some minor attacks on polling stations that happened overnight but no casualties are reported as of yet.

Two large car bombs captured in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. Over 15 improvised explosive devices [IED] have been turned in or have been discovered.

A twelve-year old boy turned in an IED maker in Paktika province last night. Most attacks have been uncoordinated, hit and run or indirect attacks.

Afghan and international security cooperation has been very effective to date and nothing significant has happened.

Our police department and intelligence department of the Ministry of Interior just informed us there was no explosion in Mazar but there was an accident, a fuel tanker exploded next to a fueling station in Maimana at Faryab province.

(At this point Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Spokesman for the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, began his press briefing)

Despite Marker Confusion Voting Continues
Of course there was one issue this morning that has captured everyone’s attention and which is of great concern to the Electoral Authority, to the Electoral Secretariat and the United Nations. That is the question of the application of the indelible ink. We have reports of problems with the application of the ink not only in Kabul, but also in different areas of the country early this morning. However, by 9 o’clock this morning, reports started to come in from Kapisa, Parwan, Panjshir, and Wardak Provinces that the problem seems to have been addressed in those locations and we trust that the same thing is happening in other places as the assessment of the experts is that it is a question of application of the ink on people’s fingers. The JEMB has made a decision that voting continues throughout the country and that specific instructions are being sent to polling stations. The spokesman for the JEMB [Sultan Ahmad Baheen] will read this statement in Dari and the statement will also be read in English by the Director of the Electoral Secretariat, Dr. Farook Wardak. We also have here with us today, professor Reg Austin, who is the Senior Technical Advisor of the JEMB, Mrs. Ansari who is one of the commissioners, one of the members of the JEMB, as well as Julian Type, one of the experts in the JEMB Secretariat. They will be available to answer questions.

JEMB statement read by Ahmad Baheen in Dari.

English JEMB statement read by Dr. Farooq Wardak
Good morning ladies and gentlemen! As you know the JEMB has been meeting since 6 o’clock this morning at the JEMB Secretariat Headquarters. We received complaints from some parts of the country about the un-standard ability of the indelible ink. In light of the complaint received, the JEMB had its own extraordinary session and they have tested the indelible inks which you may see on three of my fingers. We have tested them and the following decision was made unanimously by all members of the JEMB. The problem reported with the indelible ink appears to be related to problems with the application of the ink, not with the ink itself, which means the way it was applied. In some polling stations our colleagues, instead of applying the indelible ink, they applied the marker that was used for the ballot papers. Second, where the correct ink is applied properly it remains on the finger. Third, instructions have been issued by the Secretariat to all the provinces on the correct application of the ink. The Joint Election Management Body decided, one, to instruct that the election can move forward as scheduled and to continue to analyze reports during the course of the day, and two, to communicate

this point to the polling staff, candidates, community leaders and the nation to congratulate the voters for their enthusiastic turnout on this historical day, and to request the patience of everyone as these additional instructions are put in place. Thank you very much.

(Due to technical difficulties, Q & A could not be transcribed)

Decision of the Joint Electoral Management Body on the question of Indelible Ink
9:00 am, 9 October 2004
The problems reported with the indelible ink appear to be related to problems with the application of the ink, not with the ink itself.

Where the correct ink is applied properly, it remains on the finger.

Instructions have been issued by the Secretariat to all provinces on the correct application on the ink.

The Joint Electoral Management Body decided:

1. To instruct that the election can move forward as scheduled and to continue to analyze reports during the course of the day.

2. To communicate these points to the polling staff, candidates, community leaders, and the nation, to congratulate voters for their enthusiastic turnout on this historic day, and to request the patience of everyone as these additional instructions are put in place.

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