Fraud, misconduct threaten Afghan presidential election

Accusations of fraud and misconduct, more than scores of Taliban attacks, threatened to overwhelm the results of Saturday's vote for the next president of Afghanistan, denying the winner legitimacy and frustrating efforts to restart peace talks to end 18 years of war.

When polls closed Saturday, Afghanistan's Interior Minister Massoud Andarabi said there had been 68 Taliban attacks across the country, most of them rockets fired from distant outposts. At least five people were killed, including one police, and scores more were injured.

A surge in violence in the run-up to the elections, which following the collapse of U.S.-Taliban talks to end America's longest war, had already rattled Afghanistan in recent weeks. Yet on Saturday, for those who went to vote it was the process itself that drew the greatest criticism, threatening the country's fragile battle against chaos.

Many Afghans found incomplete voters' lists, unworkable biometric identification systems aimed at curbing fraud, and