Afghanistan mobilizes donkeys for presidential elections (click title to entry - thank you)
14:5229/07/2009
KABUL, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - Some 3,000 donkeys are being mobilized to assist in Afghanistan's presidential elections next month, the UN envoy to Afghanistan said on Wednesday.
Some 17 million Afghans are due to vote in presidential and provincial elections on August 20, however many remote areas of the impoverished country cannot be reached by vehicle, which has meant employing more traditional means of transport.
Kai Eide said, "There will be 3,500 trucks involved...3,000 donkeys will get the ballot papers to the most remote areas," adding that the pack animals would carry voting boxes and papers to mountainous regions, where there was a problem with access.
Security and corruption are the greatest concerns prior to the polls, but the top UN official said that measures were being taken to avoid ballot fraud and increase security, despite recent attacks on election campaigners and presidential front runners.
Incumbent president Hamid Karzai's convoy was attacked on Sunday, although the leader, who is seeking reelection after his 2004 win, escaped unharmed.
And in a separate attack a campaign manager for former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, one of the election front runners along with ex-finance minister Ashraf Ghani, was injured when his vehicle came under fire on Tuesday in eastern Afghanistan.
