AFGHAN ELECTION officials were preparing last night for a possible second round of voting in five weeks’ time to decide Afghanistan’s controversial presidential election, even as President Hamid Karzai appeared to be cruising towards victory.
The first full preliminary results were released giving Mr Karzai 54.6 per cent of the votes, against 27.7 per cent for main challenger Abdullah Abdullah. A Karzai spokesman said it would take a “miracle” for his candidate to lose.
But election officials are scrutinising 10 per cent of ballots for possible fraud, mostly in areas where Mr Karzai performed strongly. A European Union team said up to one quarter of votes could be tainted. If the recount pushes Mr Karzai’s share below 50 per cent the contest will go to a second round. A senior western official said that the Afghan independent election commission had pencilled in a run-off vote for the third week of October, confounding earlier predictions that a fresh poll was impossible before the onset of the harsh Afghan winter.
The IEC has ordered fresh ballots from England and new stocks of indelible ink, which is used to stain voters’ fingers, from Canada, the official said, on condition of anonymity. An exact date has not been set. A fresh vote could pacify Mr Abdullah, who claims Mr Karzai manipulated state machinery to rig the election, and assuage the fears of western allies who want to avoid association with a potentially explosive result.
But a new poll would also be expensive and dangerous and would disenfranchise Afghan voters in remote northern and eastern provinces, which will be partially snowbound by late October. “It could be a nightmare. On top of the security problem of further Taliban attacks, some areas will be left out of the vote,” the western official said.
The month-long count has been overshadowed by allegations of fraud. The UN-backed electoral complaints commission, which adjudicates disputes, has quarantined votes from 2,500 of the 26,300 polling stations. Votes from 83 polling stations have already been thrown out, in some instances where Karzai won 100 per cent of the vote.
The most damning assessment came from the EU monitors, who estimated that 1.5 million of 5.6 million votes might be tainted by fraud. Mr Karzai’s office angrily rejected the claim last night, calling it “partial, irresponsible and in contradiction with Afghanistan’s constitution”.
Western countries are thought to prefer an imperfect October vote to a months-long political limbo waiting for winter snows to thaw. – (Guardian service)