A roadside bomb killed 11 people including five election workers in northern Afghanistan, officials said earlier today, as a prolonged vote count began after the presidential run-off election.
Election officials were sifting through fraud complaints from both candidates, and analysts said the lengthy count could be the trickiest phase in the country´s first democratic transfer of power.
More than 50 people were killed on polling day Saturday by militant attacks, including 11 whose bus was hit by a roadside bomb in Samangan province and five members of one family who died when a Taliban rocket hit a house near a polling station.
Eleven voters in the western province of Herat had their fingers — which were dipped in ink to register their ballot — cut off by insurgents, Deputy Interior Minister Ayoub Salangi said.
But despite the Taliban attacks, Saturday´s election drew a high turnout of about seven million voters in a contest between former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani.
