Karzai agrees to second Afghan election

The fraud-tainted Afghan election that cost a large slice of credibility for current president Hamid Karzai is to go to a second round, it was decided today.

Mr Karzai agreed to a run-off against main rival Abdullah Abdullah which will be held on November 7.

The country’s election commission ordered the new election after he accepted the findings of a fraud investigation that dropped his votes below 50% of the total in the first one.

The announcement came two months to the day after the first-round vote in which Nato troops were deployed in operations to safeguard electors and follows weeks of political uncertainty at a time when Taliban strength is growing.

Mr Karzai said final results showing the need for a run-off were “legitimate, legal and according to the constitution of Afghanistan.”

The Afghan leader spoke alongside US senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the head of the UN in Afghanistan, Kai Eide – a sign of the intense international pressure which preceded the announcement.

President Barack Obama welcomed Karzai’s willingness to run in a new election against his main rival Abdullah Abdullah, saying his decision “established an important precedent for Afghanistan’s new democracy.”

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also commended Mr Karzai, as did UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Ban, however, also stressed that a run-off will be a “huge challenge” and promised more help from the world body.

Shortly before the press conference, the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, said the commission, which organised the August 20 vote, did not want to “leave the people of Afghanistan in uncertainty” any longer.

The possibility of a run-off emerged yesterday after a UN-backed panel threw out nearly a million of Mr Karzai’s votes from the first ballot, pushing his totals below 50% and setting the stage for a run-off against Mr Abdullah, a former foreign minister.

The commission determined that Mr Karzai won 49.7% of the vote – higher than independent calculations but still low enough to force a run-off, according to a statement.

In a sign that political fissures are not completely smoothed over, the statement said the commission still had “some reservations” about the fraud rulings but decided to announce the run-off because of “time constraints, the imminent arrival of winter and existence of the problems in the country.”

The agreement that a run-off is required could be just the first step in negotiations to iron out differences between the Karzai and Abdullah camps.

There are serious worries that a run-off – which Karzai is widely expected to win – may not produce any better result.

Another election risks the same fraud that derailed the first vote, along with inciting violence and increasing ethnic divisions. If there are any delays, the vote could also could be hampered by winter snows that block off much of the north of the country starting mid-November.

The August poll 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.

Taliban threats dampened turnout in the first round and many say even fewer people would come out in a run-off.