http://www.timesofearth.com/Worldnews/?NT=0&nid=12879 KABUL — Afghanistan will hold a second round of voting on 7 November after an election panel reluctantly accepted that massive fraud took place in August's poll, which President Hamid Karzai was declared to have won.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC), which is packed with Karzai supporters, initially resisted the findings of fraud but like Karzai succumbed to concerted western pressure for a runoff after it became clear ballot-rigging had taken place on an epic scale.
At a press conference to announce the runoff, Karzai said the IEC's decision to hold a second round in November was legal and constitutional.
"We believe that this decision of the IEC is legitimate, legal and constitutional, and that it strengthens the path towards democracy," Karzai said in remarks broadcast live on Afghan television.
US senator John Kerry, who was in Kabul for some diplomatic arm-twisting, sought to put the best spin on what has been a chaotic election process. Praising Karzai for his "great leadership", Kerry told reporters: "A great moment of uncertainty has been transformed into a time of great opportunity."
Barack Obama welcomed Karzai's acceptance of a runoff election, saying it was an important step forward for democracy. The US president said in a statement: "It is now vital that all elements of Afghan society continue to come together to advance democracy, peace and justice. We look forward to a second round of voting, and the completion of the process to choose the president of Afghanistan."
Gordon Brown said Karzai's promise to hold a second ballot was "statesmanlike". The prime minister said it was clear there had been flaws in the election process and that it was now vital that the country's new government "had legitimacy in the eyes of its people".
The chairman of the IEC, Azizullah Lodin, said the commission had wanted to "leave the people of Afghanistan in uncertainty" no longer. "The commission agreed to go to a second round and say that nobody got more than 50%," Lodin said, adding that all the materials were ready for the runoff.
Karzai is still likely to emerge the winner as a Pashtun, he is a member of Afghanistan's largest ethnic group. But his credibility has been severely undermined by the scale of fraud in the first round.
It was feared that Karzai was preparing to reject the UN Electoral Complaints Commission's (ECC) findings of fraud, which had the effect of cutting his total by 954,526 votes and reducing his share of the vote from 55% to 48.3%.
Anything less than 50% should automatically trigger a runoff, but Karzai had been disputing the figures.
Peter Galbraith, the deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, who was sacked for being too vocal on election fraud, warned today that a second round held on the same basis as August's would be a disaster.
Galbraith, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, called for the IEC to be scrapped.
France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, predicted on France-Info radio that Karzai would accept a runoff because he "is rather smart. And in any case, he has won."
Kouchner said that even after the ECC had thrown out a third of Karzai's votes from the first round, Karzai still won about twice as many votes as former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who came second.
In a late meetinglast night at the presidential palace, attended by Kerry as well as the British and French ambassadors and the UN special representative, Kai Eide, a deal was struck whereby Karzai would be lauded by other world leaders as a "statesman".
Karzai's recent threats not to accept the results of the official investigation by the ECC, which found that almost one in every three of his votes was fraudulent, shocked his western allies, who believe he has engaged in dangerous brinkmanship.
A senior diplomatic source said Karzai had been talked round by ultimatums from world leaders including Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, Gordon Brown and Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general. They made clear that if he did not back down, he would "be working outside the constitution and would no longer be a partner of the west".
Only two members of Karzai's cabinet voted to reject the deal. But questions remain over how Abdullah will react. Among the posts that may be offered to Abdullah are head of the constitutional reform committee, acknowledging his campaign calls for power to be decentralised away from the president.
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