Afghan election officials have ordered a runoff between President Hamid Karzai and his closest rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. It is scheduled for November 7th.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai
The announcement comes a day after the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission released its report detailing instances of fraud in the August 20th election.
International officials in Kabul have told me for weeks now that they had contingency plans in place to deal with the aftermath of the fraud investigation.
Analysts had discussed the likelihood of a runoff for some time, but in the back of everyone’s mind, there was the possibility that President Karzai would not accept the ECC’s findings. Click here for the background why.
Now Afghanistan — a country in crisis — has a little more than two weeks to prepare for a nationwide presidential election.
Voter turnout was lower than expected in the first round, especially in the troubled south, in part because of Taliban threats to disrupt the balloting and retaliate against voters. How many people will vote this time?
Tags: abdullah, afghan elections, Afghanistan, ECC, electoral complaints commission, fraud, hamid, IEC, independent election commission, karzai
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