KABUL: Afghan election returns released on Tuesday put incumbent Hamid Karzai on course for a single round victory, but a UN-backed watchdog said it had found ‘clear and convincing evidence of fraud’ and ordered a partial recount.
The latest data from the Independent Election Commission effectively put Karzai and the Afghan election authorities on a collision course with an international community increasingly sceptical of the outcome of an election it paid for.
Officials said pursuing allegations of fraud in the poll —held last month —could postpone a final result for two to three months and keep Afghanistan in a prolonged state of limbo.
With 91.6 per cent of polling stations counted, the Independent Election Commission reported Karzai ahead with 54.1 per cent of the vote to 28.3 per cent for his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
It was the first time the commission had reported Karzai on course to exceed the 50 per cent threshold needed to win outright and avoid a second round and radically alters the calculations of Western diplomats keen to ensure a credible outcome.
The results are final only after they are certified by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), a separate body led by a Canadian and mainly appointed by the United Nations. For the first time, it went public with accusations of fraud.
‘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.
It ordered the IEC to recount results from polling stations where one candidate received more than 95 per cent of the vote or where more votes were cast than the expected maximum of 600.—Reuters
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