Karzai agrees to run-off Afghan election

Afghanistan's election commission today ordered a run-off election for November 7 after a fraud investigation dropped President Hamid Karzai's votes from the first round below 50% of the total.

Mr Karzai accepted the fraud panel finding and endorsed the run-off election.

The chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, said the commission 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%," he said. Afghan electoral law says a run-off is needed if no candidate gets above that percentage.

Mr Karzai announced his acceptance of the findings at a press conference alongside US senator John Kerry and Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan.

Mr Kerry said the agreement on a second round had transformed the crisis into a "moment of great opportunity" and that Mr Karzai "has shown genuine leadership in the decision he has made today".

The possibility of a run-off emerged yesterday after a UN-backed panel threw out a third of Mr Karzai's votes from the August 20 ballot, pushing his totals below the 50% threshold needed for a first round victory and setting the stage for a run-off against former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Another election risks the same fraud that derailed the August vote, along with inciting violence and increasing ethnic divisions. A November runoff also could be hampered by winter snows that block off much of the country starting mid-month.

The August 20 election was characterised by Taliban attacks on polling stations and government buildings that killed dozens of people. In some areas, militants cut off the ink-marked fingers of people who had voted.

Turnout was hit during that vote because of threats of violence from the Taliban and many say even fewer people would come out in a run-off.

Despite the danger, some Afghans in the southern city of Kandahar - a Karzai stronghold where many votes ended up thrown out for fraud - said they would prefer a runoff to a coalition government.