| Submit your comments on this article |
| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Ink Company Says Afghan Election Officals Were Confused |
| 2004-10-12 |
| An Indian paint company says that marker pens with indelible ink supplied for Afghanistan's elections cannot be blamed for cases of election fraud. Some candidates maintain that many people cast their vote more than once after removing supposedly indelible ink marks from their fingers. But the company says that the problem arose because of confusion among election staff in some voting centres. ... Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited, a public sector company based in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, told the BBC that the problem had arisen because of confusion among election staff in some voting centres. "They used marker pens meant for paper and not the pen with indelible ink on voters' fingers," said C Harakumar, the company's marketing manager. "How can we be held responsible for mistakes of the election staff?" he asked. .... The United Nations Representative Sam Vidana Gamachi visited the company factory in Mysore before placing orders for 50,000 marker pens instead of ink bottles. While 50,000 pens were sent to Afghanistan, voters in booths set up in Pakistan used indelible ink from bottles for the presidential election. Company officials say 22,000 bottles of 80ml indelible ink were sent for use in booths set up in Pakistan for Afghan refugees. .... Company officials say that UN officials insisted on the marker pens even though they were recommended to use ink from bottles. It was the first time that Mysore Paints manufactured indelible ink pens. For this week's election in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, officials decided to use ink bottles in preference to ink pens, a decision which under the circumstances seems to have been entirely justified. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |