Cargo planes and donkeys deliver Afghan ballot papers
From hulking Russian cargo planes to horses, donkeys and camels, authorities are harnessing everything they can to get ballots to voters for the first parliamentary elections after a quarter-century of war that has shattered Afghanistan’s infrastructure.
Officials hope Sunday’s elections will mark a key step toward stability in a nation that has little democratic tradition and remains riven by ethnic, tribal and religious divides.
But the obstacles thrown up by those legacies are at least equalled by the purely physical challenge of setting up polling stations and delivering ballots to voters across the rugged country in the face of security threats, transportation problems and capricious weather.
