Brussels, 11/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - "The fact that millions of Afghans, including those living in Iran or Pakistan, were able to choose a president out of a wide variety of candidates it a landmark in Afghan history", said Bernard Bot, President of the Council of the EU. Speaking on behalf of the Union, the Dutch Foreign Minister welcomed the "calm" unfolding of Saturday's presidential elections, which gave rise to no major security incidents. The EU has pinpointed various technical problems, however, and is calling for all complaints on possible irregularities which may have influenced the results be "fully and independently" investigated. Opposition candidates have complained, because the indelible ink used to mark the voters' thumbs to ensure they only voted once was not actually indelible. The counting of the votes, set to take at least two weeks, had not started on Monday, as the authorities were awaiting instructions on how to deal with the ballot boxes from the polling stations in which irregularities had been alleged.