(10 Oct 2004) SHOTLIST
1. Wide of Hamid Karzai talking to media
2. Officials watching
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan Interim President:
"Yesterday the Afghan people went and voted and by voting they have shown the defeat of terrorism and of all those who do not want peace in Afghanistan."
4. Cameramen
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan Interim President:
"While (m) millions of Afghan people were lining there before the voting stations to vote, the boycott call came. This was very unfortunate and it hurt me very much. It hurt me as an Afghan, hurt my Afghan sentiment, my sentiment as a human being and a person, who had just got the right to vote and to confirm and affirm that right for the future of Afghanistan."
6. News conference
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Hamid Karzai, Afghan Interim President:
"I hope the Afghan people have voted for me, I hope that God was kind to me so that the Afghan people will vote for me. My government will be one that will be extremely clean and in tremendous respect and regard for the vote of the Afghan people."
8. News conference
9. Cheering crowd surrounding ethnic Hazara candidate Haji Mohammed Mohaqeq as he pays his regards to his supporters for backing him in Saturday's polls
10. People clapping
11. Cheering crowd, zooms into Mohaqeq
STORYLINE:
Afghan Interim President Hamid Karzai said on Sunday that it was very "unfortunate" that opposition candidates boycotted the historic vote.
15 opposition candidates claimed on Saturday that Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was marred by incompetence and fraud.
Speaking to reporters in Kabul, Karzai said "while (m) millions of Afghan people were lining there before the voting stations to vote, the boycott call came. This was very unfortunate and it hurt me very much."
Karzai's comments came as an independent commission announced it would probe allegations that the election was illegitimate.
Opposition candidates claimed the ink used to mark voters' thumbs rubbed off too easily, allowing multiple voting.
Ethnic Hazara candidate Haji Mohammed Mohaqeq, who was out in Kabul greeting his support, was part of the boycott.
He has said an electoral commission should be formed to examine the vote - but he later suggested he would drop his protest.
Electoral officials said turnout on Saturday looked extremely high - a victory in itself in a nation with no experience at direct elections.
On Sunday, ballots were being brought to eight centres around the country, where they were being readied for counting.
Actual tabulating of the results was not expected to start until Monday.
Very early results could emerge a day or so later.
Electoral officials rejected demands that voting be stopped at noon (0730 GMT) on Saturday, saying it would rob (m) millions of people of their first chance to directly decide their leader.
The opposition protest was a blow to the international community, which spent 200 (m) million US dollars on the vote.
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