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Karzai headed for poll win; recount ordered over fraud
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| Contributor | ev |
| Last Edited | ev Sep 08, 2009 02:22pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Website - Yahoo News |
| News Date | Tuesday, September 8, 2009 08:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Karzai headed for poll win; recount ordered over fraud
By Peter Graff and Jonathon Burch Peter Graff And Jonathon Burch – 6 mins ago
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan election returns on Tuesday put President Hamid Karzai on course for a first-round victory, but a watchdog that can veto the outcome said it had found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud" and ordered a partial recount.
The disputed results put Karzai and Afghan election officials on a collision course with an international community ever more doubtful of a poll it funded and sent troops to protect.
Western officials initially hailed the August 20 election as a successful milestone, because Taliban militants failed to scupper it. Those assessments have become more guarded as evidence of widespread fraud has mounted.
The partial recount ordered by a U.N.-backed watchdog could delay a final result for weeks or months, keeping Afghanistan in a prolonged state of political uncertainty.
With votes from 91.6 percent of polling stations counted, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) reported Karzai ahead with 54.1 percent of the vote to 28.3 for main rival Abdullah Abdullah, who accuses Karzai's team of large scale fraud.
It was the first time the commission had reported Karzai on course to exceed the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright and avoid a second round. The result makes it a near mathematical certainty that when the remaining votes are counted Karzai will have 50 percent -- unless ballots for him are thrown out.
A separate Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), led by a Canadian and mainly appointed by the United Nations, has the power to do just that. It went public with accusations of fraud for the first time.
"In the course of its investigations, the ECC has found clear and convincing evidence of fraud in a number of polling stations," the body said in a statement announcing it had ordered a partial recount.
Abdullah called the official tally a "tragic j |
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