Election copter crashes in field

KABUL, Afghanistan — Engine failure brought down a U.N. helicopter sent to collect ballot boxes from northeastern Afghanistan yesterday, injuring no one but causing a new glitch in efforts to tally the results of the country’s landmark presidential election.

The accident came as a panel of foreign experts began looking for irregularities in Saturday’s vote, as charged by rivals of front-running interim President Hamid Karzai.

The complaints have stalled the start of vote counting, though officials were hopeful the tally could begin today. Final results might not be available until late October.

The helicopter had yet to pick up any ballot boxes when it crash-landed in a snowy field in the Pamir mountains of Badakhshan province, said David Avery, chief of operations for the U.N.-Afghan body managing the vote.

The U.S. military said one of its C-130 transport planes dropped emergency supplies, including sleeping bags and food, to the three crew members, three election workers and two police officers on board.

The group took shelter in an abandoned house, and the U.S. military said another helicopter would try to rescue them today.

Mr. Avery said the loss of the Russian-made Mi-8 would slow the recovery of ballots from Badakhshan, one of the country’s most inaccessible provinces. Donkeys have also been used to bring ballot boxes from remote villages.

The massive task of counting the results of this war-ravaged nation’s first Western-style vote was also being slowed by faulty paperwork accompanying some of the boxes flooding into regional counting centers, Mr. Avery said.

Chances for a conclusive outcome were on firmer ground after several of Mr. Karzai’s challengers backed away from a boycott of the vote, indicating they would accept an independent commission to probe vote-fraud charges.

U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said yesterday that two members of the panel had been appointed and had “started working today.” A third member was in the “final stages of being identified.”

The election has been hailed as a success by U.N. officials, President Bush and other world leaders. International observers have criticized the 15, saying their demand to nullify the vote was unjustified.

A high voter turnout in Afghanistan, which never before has tasted democracy, and a failure of Taliban rebels to launch a massive attack have also been held up as proof of success.

Meanwhile, the United States said yesterday it plans to press NATO to take over the U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan, possibly as early as 2005, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance said yesterday.

Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to the alliance, told American reporters who were traveling with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the aim of the United States is to combine the U.S. and NATO missions under an alliance commander.

“There will be a lot of discussion about that tomorrow, but no decisions,” Mr. Burns said, referring to today’s meeting of NATO defense ministers in Poiana Brasov, Romania.