Report: Pre-Election Corruption Crops Up in Afghanistan
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on August 18th, 2009 4:44 am by HL
Report: Pre-Election Corruption Crops Up in Afghanistan
This week’s presidential election in Afghanistan may not be the cleanest polling event, if the BBC’s findings about corruption and voting fraud are indicative of larger trends. The British news outlet reported Tuesday that bribery and bids to buy voting cards, combined with threats of violence from militant groups, could muck up the works come Thursday. —KA BBC: An Afghan working for the BBC went undercover in the capital Kabul to investigate reports that voting cards were being sold. He was offered 1,000 cards, each costing around £6 ($10). Other vendors made similar offers. It is impossible to know how many voting cards have been sold in such a manner, says the BBC’s Ian Pannell in Kabul, but there have been a number of arrests. Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM
This week’s presidential election in Afghanistan may not be the cleanest polling event, if the BBC’s findings about corruption and voting fraud are indicative of larger trends. The British news outlet reported Tuesday that bribery and bids to buy voting cards, combined with threats of violence from militant groups, could muck up the works come Thursday.? —KA
BBC:
An Afghan working for the BBC went undercover in the capital Kabul to investigate reports that voting cards were being sold.
He was offered 1,000 cards, each costing around £6 ($10). Other vendors made similar offers.
It is impossible to know how many voting cards have been sold in such a manner, says the BBC’s Ian Pannell in Kabul, but there have been a number of arrests.
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Top Court Orders New Hearing for Troy Davis
Death row inmate Troy Davis might get a chance to clear his name in the 1989 murder of a Savannah, Ga., police officer, now that the Supreme Court has ordered a federal judge to grant him a new hearing. —KA AP via Google News: The court told a federal judge to hold a hearing to decide whether evidence “that could not have been obtained at the time of trial” could establish Davis’ innocence. His case has become a rallying cry for death penalty opponents. Davis’ attorneys contend he deserves a new trial because new evidence proves he was mistakenly identified as the killer. They say several trial witnesses have recanted their testimony, and others who did not testify during the trial have said another man confessed to the killing. “This is exactly what we asked for,” said Jason Ewart, Davis’ attorney. “It’s been years since these witnesses have come forward, and they’ve never had their day in court. And now they will.” Read more READ THE WHOLE ITEM
Death row inmate Troy Davis might get a chance to clear his name in the 1989 murder of a Savannah, Ga., police officer, now that the Supreme Court has ordered a federal judge to grant him a new hearing.? —KA
AP via Google News:
The court told a federal judge to hold a hearing to decide whether evidence “that could not have been obtained at the time of trial” could establish Davis’ innocence. His case has become a rallying cry for death penalty opponents.
Davis’ attorneys contend he deserves a new trial because new evidence proves he was mistakenly identified as the killer. They say several trial witnesses have recanted their testimony, and others who did not testify during the trial have said another man confessed to the killing.
“This is exactly what we asked for,” said Jason Ewart, Davis’ attorney. “It’s been years since these witnesses have come forward, and they’ve never had their day in court. And now they will.”
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- August 12, 2009 Gay Rights Group Puts Marriage Fight on Hold
