Karzai close to election victory, pending investigations
Hamid Karzai’s victory in Afghanistan’s first presidential election could be sealed within days, a top election adviser said today – unless investigators uncover major fraud.
With 37% of the votes from the October 9 election counted, the US-backed interim leader has won 63.1% support and racked up a 46-point lead over his nearest challenger.
The deputy chairman of the joint UN-Afghan electoral body said it would not announce a result until the last vote was counted and investigations into alleged irregularities were complete.
But its top expert forecast the result of the country’s first national vote since the fall of the Taliban would be clear after two more days of counting.
“By tomorrow, we should be able to make a sufficient determination,” said Reginald Austin, the chief technical adviser to the election organisers.
The election was a milestone in Afghanistan’s modern history. Although the country is still dogged by militants, factional fighting and a burgeoning drugs trade, Afghans turned out in force to vote, seeing it as a chance for peace after a quarter-century of conflict.
The campaign team of Karzai, who enjoys strong international backing, believes its man is already certain to triumph.
The camp of ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, currently in third place, also says the race is over. But two other leading challengers are threatening not to recognise the result after accusing the US-backed incumbent of cheating.
Karzai, stop-gap president since the Taliban were ousted by US-led forces in late 2001, is sweeping southern and eastern regions dominated by his fellow Pashtun tribesmen.
He has tried hard to style himself as a unifying figure in a country riven by ethnic mistrust, but has achieved mixed results in northern and central provinces where ethnic Tajik, Hazara and Uzbek candidates have scored better.
The official election website, which keeps a rolling tally of results, said nearly three million of the estimated eight million votes cast have been counted, including at least partial returns from all 34 provinces and voting among refugees in Pakistan.
Karzai has captured 1,884,711 votes, or 63.1%. His closest challenger, former Education Minister Yunus Qanooni, trailed with 16.9%. Dostum is third with 7.7%.
“We think we are secure now,” Karzai’s campaign spokesman, Hamed Elmi, said yesterday. “When they announce it formally, then we will celebrate.”
Elmi said the president’s campaign staff was “100%” sure they would win in the first round of voting.
However, Ray Kennedy, the deputy chairman of the Joint Electoral Management Body, today said it had no intention of calling the election before the process was complete.
“That’s not something we’re going to pronounce on,” Kennedy said.
The outcome would only be announced officially when the board has “complete results from the secretariat and reports from the panel and our own investigations unit”.
A panel of three foreign election experts was called in after accusations of fraud on polling day, especially over problems with ink used to mark voters' fingers to stop them casting more than one ballot.
Multiple registration has been a concern ever since the election organisers issued 10.5 million ID cards earlier this year – far more than expected.
Mohammed Mohaqeq, a Hazara chieftain clocking up strong support among the group’s homelands in the Hindu Kush mountains, claimed up to 15% of Karzai’s support came from multiple voting and men casting ballots for wives and daughters – disallowed under the rules.
“I will never recognise the result,” Mohaqeq said.
Qanooni, an ethnic Tajik, claims ballot boxes were stuffed with votes in favour of Karzai in at least four provinces. Election officials say there is no evidence of this.
The panel, which is sifting through dozens of complaints, has yet to announce any findings. The election board’s one complaints’ mechanism is also examining scores of alleged problems.
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