Brown praises Afghan effort

Friday, 21 August 2009 11:19 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

Gordon Brown has praised the efforts of British troops in securing a largely peaceful day of voting in the country.

Speaking at his constituency, where the prime minister had broken off from his holiday to check in with Britain's ambassador and senior commanders, Mr Brown said there had been a sustained effort to cripple the vote.

"What we are seeing is the first elections that Afghanistan has organised for itself in 30 years," he told the BBC.

"But what we have also seen is a massive attempt by terrorists to disrupt the electoral process, to prevent people from voting, indeed to intimidate people from voting and I want to thank our British forces for everything that they have done to make sure that these elections can take place.

"This has been a very difficult summer, with major sacrifices and major losses as a result of the campaign by the terrorists."

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Ninety per cent of users said the government had failed to provide troops with the best equipment.

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The prime minister reiterated his argument that the presence of British troops in the country is essential to the UK's security, as counting began in the country's second presidential election since the war began.

"It's important also to recognise that these elections would not be possible without the British forces being so important to the conduct and to the achievement of stability in Afghanistan," he said.

"And I think we have always got to remember that security of us here in the streets of Britain is dependent on us having stability in Afghanistan."

The PM met with Rose gentle today, whose son died in Iraq.

She has since campaigned against the war, but met with mr Brown at an undisclosed location today, for talks which she said she was "quite thankful" for.

Around 300,000 international and Afghan troops took part in the massive security operation to ensure the vote took place relatively peacefully.

Results will filter through slowly, with the final result not expected to be announced until next month.

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