In Afghanistan, “On August 20 [2009], election day, the turnout was just 38 percent–far less than what it had been in 2004. Few people in the south actually turned out to vote. Local officials and [President Hamid] Karzai tribal loyalists stuffed ballot boxes where nobody voted and even created hundreds of fake polling stations that recorded thousands of votes. In one district, polling stations were opened for an hour, then closed, and then all 23,900 ballots were forged for Karzai. Actual voter turnout in the Pashtun south was estimated at between 1 and 5 percent–but high-intensity ballot stuffing for Karzai at some polling stations recorded more than 100 percent turnout! The Taliban inflicted some damage–they killed twenty-six Western and Afghan soldiers in seventy-three attacks–but they could not disrupt the election.”
– Ahmed Rashid, Pakistan on the Brink, Pages 81-82