KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan leader Hamid Karzai is likely to face a second round run-off in early November in the country's disputed presidential election, a former diplomat close to the U.S. regional envoy said on Wednesday.
Almost two months after polling day, the U.N.-backed election watchdog is still sifting through piles of allegedly suspicious ballots to determine if Karzai is the outright winner or must face a second vote against his runner-up.
Peter Galbraith, a senior U.S. diplomat who was fired last month from his U.N. position in Afghanistan in a row over election fraud, said the second round looked inevitable.
"I expect that by the end of this week the Election Complaints Commission will have announced its review," Galbraith, known to be close to the U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, told the BBC's Hard Talk programme.
"That result is likely to bring Karzai below 50 percent. Hopefully the run-off can be held sometime before the first week of November which is still possible in terms of weather."
Karzai, who got 54.6 percent of the vote in the first round, has acknowledged that some fraud had taken place but not on a big enough scale to require a second round. He has blamed some Western media and officials for exaggerating the extent of fraud.
He will be however be forced into a run-off against ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah if a fraud investigation cuts his share of the vote below 50 percent.
"I think if you could have an honest second round then he (Karzai) might be accepted by many but not all Afghans as the man who won the election," Galbraith said.
"The second issue is whether another five years of Karzai will somehow be different from the last seven years of Karzai which is of course a government that was characterised by inefficiency, ineffectiveness and corruption." Continued...
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Airstrike Targets Militant Hideouts in Pakistan
By VOA News
Intelligence officials say Pakistani fighter jets have bombed militant targets along the Afghan border, killing at least nine insurgents.
Pakistani officials said Wednesday's air force attacks on militant hideouts in the South Waziristan region come as troops continue to prepare for a broader ground operation against the militant hub.
Military airstrikes have hit suspected Taliban hideouts in the region for weeks. On Tuesday, fighter jets targeted the Taliban strongholds of Makeen, Ladha and Nawazkot in South Waziristan, killing at least two people.
The airstrikes follow four high-profile terrorist attacks that killed more than 100 people in the past week. On Sunday, a suicide bomber targeting a military convoy killed 41 people near the troubled Swat Valley. Militants also bombed a U.N. office in Islamabad, a crowded market in Peshawar and took soldiers hostage inside the army's main headquarters.
Pakistan's government says most of the militant attacks in the country are planned in the tribal regions.
The Pakistani military has been preparing for months to expand an offensive in the region. Officials say the assault will begin soon. U.N. observers say some 80,000 civilians have fled the tribal region in anticipation of a new offensive.
Even as the army prepares for a South Waziristan operation, thousands of troops continue to patrol the Swat Valley, where the government said in late May it was close to declaring victory.
On Tuesday, the Pakistani military said that troops searching for militants encountered some 33 militants who voluntarily surrendered in the last 24 hours. Soldiers reporters several clashes, which killed five suspected militants and wounded two soldiers. The military's claims have not been independently confirmed.
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