Kabul: France`s Foreign Minister urged Afghanistan`s political rivals on Sunday to accept the findings of a fraud investigation that could decide whether the nation`s disputed election goes to a runoff.
The August 20 vote was marred by charges of ballot-stuffing and voter coercion, mostly to President Hamid Karzai`s benefit. Both he and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah say the results of the fraud probe, which have been expected since Saturday, are in their favour.
"For the moment we are worried ... because it seems that not everybody is ready to accept the results," Bernard Kouchner told reporters in Kabul. "They must accept the results."
International pressure is mounting on the rivals to find a way out of the deepening political impasse, which threatens the legitimacy of the Afghan government and the future of the US-led military mission in the insurgent-wracked country.
Fearing the crisis will worsen, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have telephoned both Karzai and Abdullah in recent days to express concern over the stalemate.
US Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, are all in Kabul for talks with Afghan leaders.
Kerry told the candidates "about the need for a legitimate outcome," according to a US embassy official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
A UN-backed panel has been investigating fraud complaints which could invalidate enough ballots to push the incumbent`s total below 50 percent and force a runoff. Announcement of the commission`s findings was delayed as commission members spent Saturday in meetings with Afghan election officials and double-checking calculations, according to people familiar with the talks.
Both Karzai and Abdullah have refused to commit to accepting the panel`s findings before they`re released, and both campaigns claim the findings will be in their favour.
Asked why the candidates should commit to the findings before knowing what they are, Kouchner said that both sides "have to sacrifice ... we need a consensus."
"At the end of the day, a government is necessary," Kouchner said.
Preliminary figures from the August ballot showed Karzai won with more than 54 percent of the vote, compared to Abdullah`s 28 percent.
Afghan law declares the UN-dominated Electoral Complaints Commission the final arbiter on fraud allegations. However, Karzai supporters on the separate Independent Election Commission, which has the authority to order a runoff, have argued that the partial recount is beyond the normal complaint process and that the UN-backed panel does not have the final say.
A second round of balloting would have to be held before winter, which traditionally begins in mid-November. Once heavy snows fall and block mountain passes, a runoff would have to wait until spring, leaving the country in political limbo for months as the Taliban gains strength.
In taped interviews to US networks, Kerry said that a decision on whether to send more US troops to Afghanistan could not be made before the election crisis is resolved.
"I don`t see how President Obama can make a decision about the committing of our additional forces or even the further fulfilment of our mission that`s here today without an adequate government in place or knowledge about what that government`s going to be," he told CBS.
Bureau Report
