KIPP monitors polls in Afghanistan

JAKARTA: Barred from conducting its activities in the country, the Independent Elections Monitoring Committee (KIPP) has dispatched three of its observers to war-torn Afghanistan to monitor the poll there.

KIPP executive director Ray Rangkuti told The Jakarta Post the team would observe the first democratic election in the central Asian country since the fall of the Taleban regime.

The observers left on Aug. 31 and would return home at the end of October, Ray said.

KIPP's election monitoring license was revoked by the General Elections Commission in the run-up to the first round of the presidential elections. It was invited to monitor the poll in Afghanistan by the Asian Network for Free and Fair Elections, he said. -- JP