Donkeys drafted to help with Afghan elections

Link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040930/323/f3n40.html





KABUL (AFP) - After a high-tech invasion set Afghanistan up for its first democratic elections, the donkey work is being left to -- donkeys.

Around 300 of the morose plodders have been drafted in to deliver voting materials in rugged and remote areas ahead of the presidential poll on October 9.

"We keep telling you about the 100,000 people who will be working on voting day," United Nations spokesman Almeida e Silva told a news conference here.

"Let me tell you of a much smaller group, not of human beings but other beings who are already working for elections.

"These are some 300 donkeys. They don't have badges, they don't have any other identification but they have a lot of good work," he said.

The election comes three years after Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers were ousted by US-led forces in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.