Second Round of Presidential Elections in Afghanistan

The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan announced that the second round of Presidential elections will be held on 7 November 2009. The first round of the second Presidential election in Afghanistan was held on 20 August 2009 has been faced with claims of widespread fraud. A part of the votes has been announced cancelled by the Election Complaints Commission after two months of review, and therefore, President Hamid Karzai’s vote based on primary results of the election was 55%, reached to less than fifty percent. According to Afghan law, whenever any of the presidential candidates can not obtain more than fifty percent of the total votes, the election will be drawn to the second round between two leading candidates.

Mr. Kai Eide, United Nations special envoy for Afghanistan, has expressed assurance to hold the second round of presidential elections within the next two weeks. About the rumors of coalition between Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah,in order to avoid the election to go for second round, Mr. Kai Eide said that although the conditions for Afghans to vote will be very difficult, appropriate measures for holding election will be carried out.

Although the primary results of the election indicated Mr. Karzai’s victory in this election, Mr. Karzai respected international community by agreeing to take part in presidential elections runoff. “Holding the second round of elections will help strengthening democracy in Afghanistan”  Mr. Karzai emphasized.  Afghan president Hamid Karzai and his election rival Abdullah Abdullah have rejected creating any kind of coalition ahead of the second round of the elections. There were rumors that United States of America wants to create a coalition government between the two rivals in order to avoid elections runoff, which faces numerous challenges. But both candidates have said that they are committed to holding the second round of elections.

Proponents of coalition argue that holding the second round of election with the current climate and security challenges in Afghanistan will be problematic. A cold and snowy winter will make it difficult to reach out to some remote districts, along with security threats.

However, the Afghan election commission says that the election material supplies so far have been transported by air to the provinces. It is considered that the transmission of election material to the districts will be done via ground transportation and animals.

To read more please click the links below:

http://www.iec.org.af/assets/pdf/pressrelease/pressr_announcement_beginning_end_of_second_round20091022.pdf

http://www.iec.org.af/assets/pdf/pressrelease/pressr_runoff_ballotpaper20091024.pdf