PoliticalAfghan :

PoliticalAfghan Presidential Election Goes To Second Round On November 7

10/20/09 11:49 am (EST)

Accepting the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission's (ECC) findings that the Afghan presidential election was affected by widespread fraud, the country's Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced Tuesday that a second round of voting will be held on November 7.

IEC chairman Azizullah Lodin said the Commission, which organized the Aug. 20 vote, did not want to "leave the people of Afghanistan in uncertainty" any longer.

"The Commission is agreed to go to a second round and say that nobody got more than 50 per cent," he told reporters.

Incumbent president Hamid Karzai told a news conference that he accepted the findings, adding they were a "step forward" for democracy.

Karzai's camp initially doubted the genuineness of the ECC report, but after intense talks with US Senator John Kerry and UN special envoy Kai Eide, he changed his mind. In the report released Monday, ECC had ordered the government-appointed IEC to invalidate 210 polling stations around the country where it found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud."

The UN watchdog also recommended that votes of 18 polling stations, set aside by the IEC, may be included in the results because it found no clear evidence of fraud.

It asked the IEC to adjust all presidential candidates' vote totals in accordance with the ECC's decisions before announcing the certified results.

The Afghan electoral body was also directed to "invalidate a certain percentage of each candidate's votes in six separate categories."

The overall effect of these revised tally meant that the ECC ruling pushed Karzai's share of vote to below 50 per cent, which requires him to face a second round voting with his nearest challenger Abdullah Abdullah.

Complaints of irregularities have poured in to the ECC since the polling was held on August 20. It included charges of ballot box stuffing and voter intimidation.

According to preliminary results declared by IEC, Karzai had a clear lead with 55% votes, far ahead of his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister, who had 28% of the votes.

This would have been enough for Karzai to win the election outright, but the IEC withheld the official declaration for the outcome of the investigation of complaints by ECC.

According to the Afghan electoral law, a presidential election will be extended to a run-off if none of the candidates achieve more than 50 per cent of the votes polled.

There were 30 presidential candidates in Afghanistan's second presidential election after the Taliban were dethroned. Held under threat by the Taliban, only one third of the country's 15 million eligible voters cast their ballot.

Addressing a joint press conference with John Kerry and Kai Eide, Karzai said "The decision announced by Independent Election Commission (IEC) today in a statement is a legal step and we support it."

Karzai told the chairman of Senate Foreign Relation Committee of the United States and UN special envoy.

"This is a step towards democracy and prosperity in Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan once again will go to elect the country's president," he added.

Kerry, the chairman of Senate Foreign Relation Committee, said NATO and the international community would make all efforts to make the run-off a success.

News of the run-off vote followed mounting international pressure on Afghanistan's leaders to resolve the two-month-old political stand-off.

The White House - debating a request for 40,000 more US troops to be sent to Afghanistan - warned at the weekend no more soldiers would be deployed until a political resolution was reached.

The U.S.-led support was indispensable for Karzai to carry forward Kabul's war against terrorism at this crucial juncture.

"This is not the right time to discuss investigations, this is the time to move forward to stability and national unity," Karzai told reporters.

U.S. President Barack Obama welcomed President Karzai's statement accepting the IEC's certification of the election results, and agreeing to participate in a second round of the election.

"This is an important step forward in ensuring a credible process for the Afghan people which results in a government that reflects their will," he said in a statement.

Karzai's decision strengthens the Afghan constitution and laws, which is "in the best interests of the Afghan people," he added.

The President commended the independent election agencies for bringing the potential fraud to light, saying that throughout the election process, the U.S. has "been interested above all in the strength and independence of those institutions, and the need for them to fulfill their mandate on behalf of all Afghans."

U.S. administration officials have suggested that the President may not wait for the run-off election before making a final decision on sending more troops to the region.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also welcomed Karzai's "statesmanlike" acceptance of the run-off.