Cops seize fake ballots
2005-09-22 21:25
Hargeisa - Police in Somalia's breakaway region of Somaliland on Thursday seized fake ballot papers at the main airport as authorities widened a crackdown on possible fraud ahead of this month's parliamentary elections, officials said.
They said the 150 ballot papers that were seized at Hargeisa airport "orginated from a foreign country," other than Britain where Somaliland Electoral Commission (SEC) has contracted a firm to print genuine papers.
"The papers were confiscated after a thorough search that followed a tip off," a police official said.
"We know the person who imported the ballot papers. Legal action will be taken against him," said the official, who requested to remain unnamed.
On Monday, the electoral panel said that some candidates for the September 29 parliamentary polls had printed fake ballot papers in a bid to rig the elections.
The panel said it was sure of the extent of the scam, but the Thursday seizure spread panic of a possible glut of counterfeit ballots in the tiny barren region, which broke away from Somalia proper in 1991.
The election board estimates more than 800 000 voters - out of Somaliland's population of some three million people - will cast ballots in the polls in which 246 candidates, including five women, are vying for 82 parliamentary seats.
The next presidential election is to be held in 2008 and the next local elections in 2007.
Lawmakers who made up the first Somali parliament that followed the secession in 1991 were appointed by elders.