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New Delhi
16 September 2009
Afghanistan's government-appointed Independent Election Commission has
released what it calls "final but preliminary" results from the August
20 vote for president. The disputed returns show incumbent President
Hamid Karzai with enough ballots to avoid a runoff with former Foreign
Minister Abdullah Abdullah. But the controversy is far from over.
The
complete preliminary results show Afghan President Hamid Karzai with
more than 54 percent of the votes and Abdullah Abdullah with less than
28 percent.
Chief Electoral Officer Daoud Ali Najafi informed reporters of the vote totals.
"Abdullah Abdullah has received 1,571,581 votes. Hamid Karzai has received 3,093,256 votes," he said.
The
Abdullah campaign has complained for weeks that supporters of the
president rigged the election, even at polling booths where Mr. Karzai
had strong support. It is an allegation that has gained credence from
neutral observers.
The Election Complaints Commission has
ordered a recount involving at least 10 percent of voting stations
nationwide. The ECC, dominated by appointees of the United Nations,
issued the order to the Afghan government's Election Commission
following hundreds of what it deemed serious complaints of ballot box
stuffing and other allegations of fraud.
European Union
election observers question the validity of about a third of the
ballots, nearly 1.5 million. EU observers tell reporters
in Kabul that under suspicion are some 1.1 million votes cast for Mr.
Karzai and 300,000 ballots marked for Mr. Abdullah.
President
Karzai's campaign calls the EU observer team's comments
"irresponsible." Karzai supporters say they are hoping that even after
ballots deemed fraudulent are discarded the president will still have
more than 50 percent of total votes to avoid a runoff election with
Mr. Abdullah.
The head of the EU observer team, Phillippe
Morillon, says that in the mean time, the Karzai campaign should
refrain from declaring victory.
"Any claim for any count or of
victory will be premature and not credible and will be premature due to
the fact that the Afghan electoral law asks for the results to be
authenticated at the end of the process," he said.
But recounting and certifying the results are expected to take some weeks, if not longer.
A
runoff election is supposed to be held two weeks after the final
results are certified. But a second round of balloting might not
feasible if inclement weather sets in. That might leave Afghanistan
with what many would view as an illegitimate government until the snow
melts in April.
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