KABUL — With more evidence emerging on massive fraud during last month’s presidential elections, Afghanistan is preparing for a potential run-off between incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah. "If a run-off takes place, we will be ready," an official at the Independent Election Commission (IEC) told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Friday, September 18.
"We cannot wait, we have started getting ready."
Election officials have prepared new election papers in London to avoid any new fraud claims.
"Our colleagues are now in London, where they have designed and prepared the ballot papers to be printed for the run-off," the official said.
"We are printing the ballot papers in London for safety reasons, we could print them in Afghanistan but we decided not to do so to avoid fraud that could just undermine the run-off process."
The IEC released preliminary results of August 20 election this week giving Karzai a majority of 54.6 percent and former foreign minister Abdullah 27.8 percent.
Fraud has become the watchword of the Afghan polls, with allegations swirling about massive fraud in Karzai's favor.
The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) ordered recounts at more than 2,500 polling stations, around 10 percent of the total, after it found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud".
EU observers also identified 1.5 million votes that could be fraudulent -- nearly a quarter of the total valid votes, and 1.1 of them cast for Karzai.
Abdullah has also shown no sign of conceding the vote, alleging state-engineered fraud and urging a run-off.
Defiant Karzai
However, President Karzai remained defiant, ruling out a second round over fraud allegations.
"Taking it to a second round or a runoff by engineering it in that direction, that is itself fraud and not the right thing to do," Karzai told CNN.
"It's against Afghan constitution."
Karzai said any fraud during last month’s elections was minimal and normal.
"It's unfortunately mainly in the international community that these allegations are coming," he said.
"I can assure you, the vote was true and fair. We cannot claim a wrong and then commit another wrong in order to make a right."
Under Afghan electoral law, a run-off should take place within two weeks of the final results being announced.
One Western official working with electoral authorities said Friday that mid-October seemed most likely.
Any later than early November and the weather would be too severe in mountainous regions, and a run-off would have to wait until early next year.
Karzai, however, did not rule out inviting Abdullah into a coalition government.
He said he would only do so to unite the country, not to respond to fraud allegations, which he insisted were false.
Karzai, first installed in the wake of the US-led military operation that ousted the Taliban in 2001, enjoyed a warm relationship with former president George W. Bush but Obama has distanced himself from the Afghan leader.
Senior US officials acknowledged they were in a bind over how to handle the election.
"I would tell you that there is no question that the nature of the election in Afghanistan has complicated the picture," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said.
Vice President Joe Biden said that if Afghans doubted the legitimacy of Karzai's government in a second term, it "makes everything considerably more difficult."
"That's why we have to follow the process to the end here," Biden, who as a senator once reportedly stormed out of a dinner with Karzai, told CNN.
"But to be honest to you, it would make this very hard to have a sustainable policy if the government with whom we're cooperating is viewed as illegitimate by the people -- in this case, the people of Afghanistan. But that's not determined yet."
Source: IslamOnline
| Daily News | We Are On... |
