KABUL, Oct 21: President Hamid Karzai urged Afghans on Friday to accept the outcome of last month’s legislative elections and put aside concerns over reported cases of vote fraud.

The UN-backed Afghan election commission said last week it had dismissed almost 50 staff after suspecting they were involved in fraud in the Sept 18 parliamentary and provincial elections.

More than 650 ballot boxes, about 3 per cent of the total, have been taken out of the counting process because of suspicions they were stuffed with bogus votes, the commission said, ruling out a recount of the boxes.

“We should accept the fact that Afghanistan lacks the proper administrative system which the world has,” Karzai told reporters when asked to comment about the electoral fraud.—Reuters