Afghan Poll Final Results Due Today

A protest against vote fraud in Kabul last month (epa) 9 November 2005 -- Final results from Afghanistan's legislative elections are due today, seven weeks after voting took place.

Inquiries into widespread cheating have held up releasing the results. Some 50 election staff have been fired and about 3 percent of the ballot boxes were taken out of the counting process.

The vote for a parliament and 34 provincial councils was the first of its kind in three decades in Afghanistan. Almost 6,000 candidates took part.

Despite the setbacks, the vote has been hailed as the final formal step to having a representative government after a quarter century of war that left more than 1 million people dead.

The legislature is expected to sit for the first time next month.

(AP)