Stalling Afghan election result harms country: Karzai

Oct 4, 2009, 12:46 GMT

Kabul - Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on election bodies Sunday to speed up the counting process for country's presidential election as stalling the outcome had both economic and security implications for the war-torn country, a statement from his office said.

Karzai met with members of National Security Council, which includes country's security chiefs, in his palace to assess the effects that prolongation of results for August 20 presidential elections had caused on economy and security of the country.

Criminal incidents, including kidnappings, were on the rise while country's revenues dropped by 20 million dollars in the past two months, the statement said, adding that it has also affected the level investments in the country.

'The participants of the meeting expressed their concerns regarding the current trend and called on relevant entities to speed up and finish the election process,' the statement said.

In the preliminary election results announced last month, Karzai received 54.6 per cent of the vote, which would be enough to avoid a runoff election.

But more than 3,000 allegations of fraud have marred the election - only the second in the history of the country.

The UN-backed election complaint commission is recounting samples from 10 per cent of the voting stations, where ballots were suspicious or 95 per cent of votes were cast for one candidate.

If enough ballots are discounted and Karzai's share of vote falls below 50 per cent, the incumbent would face a runoff with Abdullah Abdullah, his top challenger and former foreign minister.

The process on how to deal with the fraud has caused a split between Kai Eide, the top UN envoy in Afghanistan and his ex-deputy Peter Galbraith, a US diplomat. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon fired Galbraith after the dispute between the officials became public.

Following his removal from body's second top post in Afghanistan, Galbraith has accused Eide of covering up the fraud and of siding with President Karzai in a letter to Ban.

Citing Galbraith's letter as proof of Eide's bias towards the incumbent, Abdullah told a press conference on Saturday that there were 'serious questions about the neutrality of the mission led by Mr Kai Eide,' a Norwegian diplomat, during the elections.

The final election result is expected later next week, according to UN.