Afghanistan election foes backing off

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KABUL, Afghanistan -- Opposition candidates began backing away from their fierce rejection of the handling of presidential elections yesterday after winning the promise of an independent commission to examine their complaints.

However, the reversal appeared to be influenced, at least in part, by popular support for Saturday's groundbreaking election, in which millions of first-time voters defied threats of violence to cast ballots.

Final reports yesterday showed that the only voters killed were two farmers in the south, whose tractor was blown up by a land mine while they were returning from a polling station.

Thirteen of the 15 candidates opposing President Hamid Karzai had announced a boycott of the election on Saturday after the discovery that the supposedly indelible ink used to mark the thumbs of voters could be washed off easily.

But Western officials said yesterday that many of the candidates appeared willing to abandon the boycott after election officials announced that there would be a full investigation of that and other complaints.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad played a role in talks that led to the apparent reversals.

"There is going to be an independent commission made to investigate it," electoral director Farooq Wardak was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "There could be mistakes. We are just human beings. My colleagues might have made a mistake."

Officials said vigilant citizens and the newly created Afghan army and police forces, until now considered unreliable and ineffective, played a major role in thwarting Taliban plans to disrupt the voting.

In a 48-hour period ending with the close of polling, citizens across Afghanistan turned in 25 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), authorities said.

The Afghan army and police, meanwhile, were credited with intercepting some dramatic terrorist attempts.