Karzai pressured to accept run-off
By Salman Ansari Javid

Amid pressure from the U.S. and its allies Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, on Tuesday accepted the results of the international audit which gave him less than the 50 percent threshold he needed for an outright victory. The run-off election date is set for November 7.

Senator John Kerry, a key foreign policy advisor to U.S. President Barrack Obama, made a last-minute stop in Kabul on Monday night, en route from Pakistan to convince Karzai to accept the result of the panel.

Earlier Obama made a point to Karzai that he will not make a decision to add on to the 68,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan until Karzai accepts the election outcome.

After more than nine weeks of waiting the IEC announced Monday that Karzai had won only 49.7 percent instead of 54.6 percent counted earlier. The electoral commission annulled the results of the 447 of the polling stations, invalidating some one third of Karzai’s votes.

Karzai’s main challenger Abdullah Abdullah called him to offer his congratulations for his decision. Abdullah, who trailed behind Karzai with 27.8 percent, said on Wednesday that he would take part in run-off vote but called for better procedures to avoid fraud.

There are two main questions immediately ahead for Afghanistan’s electoral commission. First, how to avoid electoral-rigging during the run-off?

As a measure to ensure free and fair election next month the UN mission in Afghanistan said Wednesday that more than half of the 200 district field coordinators from the government appointed IEC will be replaced.

Kai Edie, the UN special representative in Afghanistan says, “Can we stop fraud? No, we cannot, but we can reduce it.” Electoral officials also point out that in November there will be only two candidates instead of 41 in the first round.

There are also plans to reduce the number of polling stations from 6,300 to 5,800, eliminating those located in insecure areas.

Logistics will be the second challenge facing the November 7 run-off. The Telegraph daily reported that a fleet of 3,500 trucks will be needed to carry voting materials to the polling stations and 3,000 donkeys to get people to remote areas.

A large part of the more than 32 million Afghans are eligible to vote, however the turnout for the first round was about 38 percent. Threats from Taliban will certainly be made again. However, this time another hurdle will be the winter climate.

Karzai became the first popularly elected president of Afghanistan in 2004, after he was appointed the interim leader in December 2001 following the American invasion of Afghanistan. In the past few years his popularity plunged due to allegations of corruption and lack of security in the country. Apart from Kabul most of Afghanistan is in the hands of the Taliban or warlords.

Born in 1960 in the city of Kabul Abdullah is an ophthalmologist by training. He has his roots in the Kandahar province and served as a Senator during the last years of Afghanistan’s monarchy. He became an advisor and companion to the country’s Mujahedeen leader, the late Ahmad Shah Massoud. From 1992-96 he served as spokesperson for the Defense Ministry under President Burhanuddin Rabbani. During the Taliban regime, he served as a caretaker of the Foreign Ministry for the government-in-exile from 1999 until the collapse of the Taliban.

After the overthrow of Taliban in 2001, Abdullah served as a foreign minister in Karzai’s cabinet until 2006.

Whoever comes to power after the November 7 run-off will have to deal with the problem of widespread systemic corruption in his administration and security in Afghanistan.

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