Runoff ordered in Afghan election marred by fraud

KABUL: Afghanistan's election commission yesterday ordered a November 7 runoff in the disputed presidential poll after a fraud investigation dropped incumbent Hamid Karzai's votes below 50 percent of the total. Karzai accepted the finding and agreed to a second round vote.

The announcement came two months to the day after the first round vote and follows weeks of political uncertainty at a time when Taliban strength is growing.

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."

The Afghan leader announced his agreement at a press conference alongside US Sen. 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.

"I hope that the international community and the Afghan government and all others concerned will take every possible measure to provide security to the people so that when they vote that vote is not called a fraud," Karzai said.

Shortly before the press conference, the chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, said the commission, which organized the August 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 percent," Lodin said. Afghan electoral law says a runoff is needed if no candidate gets above that percentage.

Lodin said all the materials are ready for the November 7 runoff.

"The international community is 100 percent committed to helping to carry out this election," Kerry said.

The possibility of a runoff emerged Monday after a UN-backed panel threw out a third of Karzai's votes from the August 20 ballot, pushing his totals below the 50 percent threshold needed for a first round victory.