UN fraud panel voids Karzai votes

UNITED Nations-backed fraud investigators have thrown out hundreds of thousands of votes for President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan’s disputed August election, according to a report released yesterday.

The findings set the stage for a runoff between him and his top challenger.

It was unclear, however, whether the Afghan-ledIndependent Election Commission (IEC) would accept the findings of the Electoral Complaints Commission and announce a runoff.

Karzai’s spokesman said it was too soon to make a judgment. That could mean a further delay in forming a new government that the US believes is needed to help combat the growing Taliban insurgency and may also lead to political unrest.

The White House has also said a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan would not be made before the election crisis is resolved — a stance reiterated by NATO’s chief yesterday.

“There is a need for rapid decisions [but] it’s important to stress that there is a strong need for the international community to have a credible and accountable government in Kabul to deal with,” NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Brussels.

US senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who was among a host of international envoys in Kabul at the weekend urging the president to accept the fraud rulings, returned yesterday to resume meetings with Karzai.

Two international officials said the findings showed Karzai falling below the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff with his chief rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

An independent calculation by an election monitoring group, Democracy International, showed Karzai with 48.3%, or about 2.1 million votes, after more than 995,000 of his votes were thrown out for fraud.

Preliminary results released last month showed Karzai winning the August 20 election with more than 54%. However, allegations of voter coercion and ballot box-stuffing prompted the probe and held up a final proclamation of a winner.

Abdullah spokesman Fazel Sancharaki welcomed the findings and said they showed Karzai’s percentage of the vote was 48%.

“This is a step forward, now it is up to the IEC to announce the final results.”

Sancharaki said if the IEC doesn’t accept the findings, “that would be another illegal action of the IEC”.

Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said: “I don’t think we can make any judgment based on the figures announced today.”

Investigators did not release enough figures to allow for an independent judgment, but it was clear that hundreds of thousands of Karzai votes were voided. More than 5 million votes were cast in the election.

Afghan law declares the UN-backed panel the final arbiter on fraud allegations. However, Karzai supporters on the election commission have argued that the partial recount is beyond the normal complaint process.

Hundreds of Karzai supporters protested in the president’s native southern province over the weekend, calling for the electoral commission to release results quickly and saying they will reject a second round.

They gathered in the southeastern city of Spin Boldak on Sunday, shouting, “We want the result” and “Karzai is our leader.”

Ali Shah Khan, a tribal leader, said they believed the August vote was fair and that foreigners were delaying the results to unseat Karzai.