Afghanistan prepares for runoff election

Afghanistan is getting ready for a second-round presidential election between President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. The second round comes after the election commission nullified nearly one million votes cast in August’s presidential polls.

Hamid Karzai

The investigation brought Mr. Karzai’s vote count below 50 percent, enough to trigger a runoff. The United Nations has begun delivering ballots across Afghanistan to prepare for the November 7 runoff.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said that the runoff reflects the will of the Afghan people and he may withhold his decision on U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan until after the new polls.

The remarks followed his meeting with U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, who has just returned from the Afghan capital, Kabul.

“I think you really want to know that this has worked and you want to know what kind of government is coming out of it,” Obama said.

Gates to seek extra aid for Afghanistan

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew to Slovakia on Wednesday, to ask NATO defense ministers to help the United States respond to the request for more resources made by the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.

Gates told reporters on his aircraft that he believed it makes sense to have these talks now, because he said the effort to stabilize and develop Afghanistan is a NATO mission, not just one for the US.

Afghan bus hits roadside bomb

Local officials in southern Afghanistan say a roadside bomb blasted a passenger bus Tuesday, killing 30 civilians and wounding at least 39 others. The latest violence comes days after a UN report declared August the deadliest month of the year for civilians in Afghanistan.

The Afghan government blamed the Taliban for the latest attack outside the southern city of Kandahar. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the incident, which killed dozens of civilians, including women and children, who were riding on the bus.

Afghan presidential spokesman Humayoon Hamedzada said that the authorities are investigating the matter. “We are deeply sorry for the loss of life, but our provincial authorities and the security agencies have received instructions to complete the investigations,” he said.

Afghanistan begins partial vote recount

Afghan officials are recounting a sample of the votes from last month’s disputed presidential election, in an effort to resolve weeks of uncertainty about the outcome.

Preliminary results from the August 20 vote show the incumbent candidate, president Hamid Karzai, in first place, with 54%. But if enough votes are found to be fraudulent, and his tally falls below 50%, he will face a run-off against his chief rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

To speed up the recount process, the United Nations-backed panel investigating the fraud allegations agreed to allow election officials to review only a portion of the votes from polling stations with suspected problems. If any runoff is not held soon then the Afghan winter will prevent one until the spring should it be required.

U.S. commander pleads for more troops in classified report

A report from the new US and NATO commander in Afghanistan says there is an urgent need for more foreign troops and civilians, more Afghan forces and a new strategic approach to reverse Taliban gains.

General Stanley A. McChrystal

The assessment by US Army General Stanley McChrystal is still officially secret, but the Washington Post published an unclassified version on Monday, which it says has only a few deletions requested by the government.

In the document, the general, who arrived in Afghanistan in June, says “success is not ensured by additional forces alone, but continued under-resourcing will likely cause failure.”

He writes that the US and NATO effort has long been “under-resourced,” and that must change within 12 months or the coalition “risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible.” He says a lack of even the “minimum” resources is “a recipe for failure” in a counterinsurgency,” and the Taliban and related groups have made significant gains in recent years as a result.

Karzai condemns EU’s large-scale fraudulent results

In a press statement (PDF) released September 8 the European Union Election Observation Mission urges immediate action against large-scale fraudulent results, which have been notified to the Electoral Complaints Commission.

These affect hundreds of polling stations across the country. Of a total of 18.877 tallied polling stations on September 6, there were 2.451 polling stations where more than 90% of the votes were cast for a single candidate.

Former President Jimmy Carter, who has monitored elections in countries across the globe, called the elections in Afghanistan “despicable”.  “Hamid Karzai has stolen the election,” the former president told a small group of donors to his Carter Center in Atlanta. “Now the question is whether he gets away with it.”

Karzai retains lead in Afghan elections

Hamid Karzai, the incumbent candidate in Afghanistan’s presidential elections, has continued to maintain a lead, having 54.3% of the ballot, latest results indicate.

He is well ahead of the second-place candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, who has 28.1% of the vote.

The United Nation mission in Afghanistan was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that there are “no winners” yet.

Karzai wins Afghan poll majority

Partial results from Afghanistan’s presidential election suggest that Hamid Karzai, the incumbent candidate, has won a majority of votes.

Hamid Karzai

With 91.4% of ballots having been counted, Karzai had 54.1% of votes, well above the 28.3% obtained by Karzai’s chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

According to Afghanistan’s election rules, a candidate must receive at least fifty percent of the ballot to prevent a run-off election.

Meanwhile, the United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission said on Monday it had found “convincing evidence of fraud”, and called for suspected votes to be recounted.

The UN-appointed commission, which consists of five people, has the ability to discount false votes and order a new election to be held. 720 complaints of fraud have been submitted to the committee.

Spokesman Ian Kelly with the US State department said that “it is very important that these elections are seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people, in the eyes of the international community. And I am not going to prejudge where this whole thing comes out.”

“It is not going to be a matter of days or weeks, it could be a matter of months to sort out all of these allegations,” he said.