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Karzai inches closer to prospect of Afghan win
AFP - Thursday, September 3
KABUL (AFP) - - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday moved closer to the prospect of victory in fraud-tainted elections, winning 47.3 percent of the partial vote following polls marred by credibility fears.
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Afghan officials have announced results from 60 percent of the polling stations used in only Afghanistan's second direct presidential election, held on August 20 and overshadowed by claims of massive fraud and low turnout.
Out of 3.69 million valid votes, Karzai won 1.74 million and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah 1.2 million or 32.6 percent, Independent Election Commission (IEC) official Daud Ali Najafi told a news conference.
The winner needs to secure an outright majority of 50 percent plus one vote in order to avoid a run-off, which many observers have warned could be damaging if turnout proves even lower a second-time round.
NATO and Western allies stressed Wednesday they were committed long term in Afghanistan, despite concerns that fraud and turnout as low as 30-35 percent could bring into doubt the legitimacy of the elections.
Daily attacks and bombings highlight the challenges that the next president will face in combating an insurgency that has made 2009 the deadliest year for more than 100,000 foreign troops fighting against Taliban rebels.
A suicide bomber killed Afghanistan's deputy head of intelligence, Abdullah Laghmani, and 23 other people outside a mosque during the holy month of Ramadan in a relatively peaceful eastern part of the country on Wednesday.
Results are being released in stages in a process that the IEC said would lead to the sixth set announced on Saturday, preliminary results by September 7 and the final tally on September 17.
Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) said it was no longer accepting more allegations of misconduct as it scrambles to investigate more than 2,600 claims of election fraud.
The number of complaints include more than 650 which are serious enough to potentially affect the final result, spokesman Ahmad Muslim Khuram told AFP.
The ECC has left open the possibility that the September 17 deadline for a final certified result could be pushed back, if investigators need more time to complete their inquiries.
The controversy surrounding the election also threatens to compromise a future government led by Karzai, whose seven-year rule has been marred by corruption, rising insecurity and cooling ties with his Western allies.
Abdullah, who has accused his opponent of rigging the vote and ruled out the prospect of striking a power-sharing deal, again vowed Wednesday not to accept a compromised outcome.
"If fraud is the basis of the election outcome instead of the people's vote then there is no doubt that we will stand as a broad-based opposition and will pursue the people's will," he told supporters.
The top US regional envoy, Richard Holbrooke, said the international community has no preference as to whether a second round should be held.
"We have no candidates and no preference as to a first round victory or a run-off," he told reporters in Paris ahead of a meeting of senior international envoys to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
But some observers expressed reservations, believing a run-off could further compromise the next administration if turnout was poor and divide the country between Karzai in the south and Abdullah in the north.
"If there is a second round there will be a much lower turnout," one UN official told reporters on condition of anonymity in Kabul.
Wednesday's Paris talks are supposed to chart a way forward after the polls as US and NATO command calls for a revised strategy in the eight-year war to defeat the Taliban insurgency.
Already, 2009 has been a record-breaking year for the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan, but the head of NATO said troops will remain for as long as is deemed necessary, regardless of the new government.
"We need to keep this election in perspective. Whatever happens, and I hope the final results will be credible, we must remember that we don't have 60,000 troops in Afghanistan simply for elections," said Anders Fogh Ramussen.
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