Afghanistan’s election authority defies international pressure to cut the number of polling centers in order to reduce fraud. Instead, the dubiously named Independent Election Commission (IEC) is planning to open 155 more polling stations, each a potential fraud case.

An official inquiry revealed that nearly 1 million fraudulent votes were cast in favor of the incumbent President Hamid Karzai during the primary elections. It was hoped that with the run-off, the number of polling stations can be significantly reduced, so as to minimize the risk of fraud taking place. It would have been bad had the number of polling stations remained the same. But to increase it would be disastrous, insists UN officials. The run-off takes place next Saturday with the IEC scrambling to open of more voting centers. Score one for the fraudsters.

During the primary voting, polling stations operated were operating in insecure areas that prevented election monitors from detering large scale ballot stuffing. Abdullah Abdullah, the run-off challenger, insists he would only participate if 500 polling centers were closed and the head of the IEC was fired. Perhaps he shouldn’t hold his breath.

A western representative tasked with helping with the elections said that this latest development was like a “punch in the stomach, because everything we asked them to do they rejected”. Morale among election workers, already reeling after six UN staffers working with election organizing were killed by a Taliban hit squad in Kabul yesterday. In response to this outrage, the UN appears to have ordered all non-essential staff to leave Afghanistan.

Regardless of what Richard Holbrooke is trumpeting, election observers in Kabul believe a clean vote is not attainable, claiming that “It’s going to be a fraudulent election, we can’t kid ourselves on that…” Some accuse the US and the UK of turning a blind eye to many of the IEC’s transgressions in the first round of voting just so that the process can move forward. Nothing good can possibly come from that bone-headed move. It merely sets a precedent for future bad-boys wanting to defraud the nation.