Poll Runoff in Afghanistan

The Independent Election Commission in Afghanistan announced on Tuesday, that it will hold a poll runoff on the 7th of November, 2009. This decision comes in the wake of the investigations that were conducted by the United Nations Electoral Complaints Commission, due to fraud allegations. The commission demanded that several ballots that were cast in the August 20th poll be disregarded, as almost 1/3rd of the cast votes were fraudulent. This brought the share of Karzai's vote below the required 50% mark. Noor Mohammad Noor, a spokesman for the IEC, stated, "Election will go to a second round on November 7. The reason was Karzai's vote was 49.67 and could not reach above 50 per cent."

Both, Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister and presidential candidate and Hamid Karzai, the incumbent president have agreed to the poll runoff. In a press conference held in Kabul, Karzai, while confirming the fact that runoffs would be held said, "We believe that this decision of the IEC is legitimate, legal and constitutional and that it strengthens the path towards democracy." Announcing his participation in the runoff, Abdullah said, "We are completely ready for the second round at the date which has been announced."

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has gone on record saying that it will be a huge challenge, to ensure that the elections are held a second time, without the same fraud that invalidated the first round of voting.

The affirmative decision was announced by Karzai after an entire day of talks with John Kerry, the US senator who is the chairperson of America's senate foreign relations committee. US presence and their intense lobbying for the incumbent President underlines the fact that there may be an increased pressure from their side to ensure political stability in Afghanistan to ensure that the Taliban does not rise again.

The holding of elections in the winter comes with increased risk where security is concerned. Transporting voters and ballots will be quite a challenge. Also there will be need for more troops to protect people from the Taliban, who marred the last election, with a spate of attacks. The Taliban has also announced that they will target the voters.