President Karzai Under Pressure After Poll Fraud Probe

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 4:48 pm

KABUL: President Hamid Karzai was on Tuesday, under increasing pressure to end the electoral chaos in Afghanistan, while Washington called for an early solution after more than a million fraudulent votes were expelled.
President Karzai Under Pressure After Poll Fraud Probe
U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said he hoped Karzai, whose government is supported by the West in the face of the Taliban insurgency, to reveal his intentions later on Tuesday.

Expressing the hope of a resolution “in the coming days,” Clinton said, “He will announce his intentions. I’ll let you do that, but I am encouraged in the sense that the situation is moving.”

The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) confirmed massive fraud in Afghanistan August 20 elections, raising the possibility that Karzai will be forced to run second round or have to forge a unity government.

On Monday afternoon launched ECC ballots of 210 polling stations after finding “clear and convincing evidence” of fraud, including ballot boxes with papers all filled with the same pen or same brand.

Independent observers said the CDC had invalidated the order of 1.3 million votes – about a quarter of the total cast in an election already marked by low turnout because of Taliban violence.

Most ballot stuffing allegations were made against Karzai, who led the preliminary results with 55 percent of the vote. Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, had about 28 percent.

The CEC refused to disclose the results corrected, but a Western diplomat and respected observer of the Democratic electoral International said Karzai’s participation in the vote had already fallen to about 48 percent – not enough for outright victory.

Karzai, while acknowledging the small scale irregularities, has always denied allegations of widespread fraud as “totally fabricated”.

The president made no public comment after the announcement of ECC. But he vowed Monday to “fully respect the constitutional order” in talks with the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, according to a UN spokesman.

There are signs that the patience of the traditional sponsors of Karzai in the United States is running out, and President Barack Obama struggles with a fateful decision on whether to deploy thousands more troops to Afghanistan.

Following the announcement of ECC, White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said: “It will be incredibly important for the world to see that Afghan leaders are willing to make the process legitimate.”

Gibbs would not say whether Washington wanted Karzai to accept a new round of elections or to adopt a national unity government, joined by Abdullah – two options now being raised by White House aides.

Blanco’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and the U.S. Sen. John Kerry said over the weekend so it would be “irresponsible” to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight the resurgent Taliban before the election is resolved.

Fearing that the IEC – Abdullah says he is stacked with supporters of Karzai – can not accept the conclusions ECC Kabul there were calls for quick action also.

A Western official close to the voting process, said Karzai and his cabinet are “turn toward acceptance of a runoff.

“He can not take the international community and expect continued support. It is only going to happen,” he added.

Meanwhile, Abdullah told CNN he was ready for a second round of voting, while at the same time keeping the door “open to other options.” He did not specify what the options were.

The UN spokesman in Kabul, Aleem Siddique, asked the CEI to “move quickly to announce the final result or certificate requiring a runoff.

But time is short for a second round of elections to be held with the harsh Afghan winter ahead.

And tribal leaders hold sway over thousands of voters in their fiefdoms have warned of widespread discontent with the political process. Taliban attacks and intimidation have also caused many voters to stay home in August.

President Karzai Under Pressure After Poll Fraud Probe

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