Afghanistan is to face a second round of elections, after an investigation by the United Nations found that large-scale fraud took place in the first round in August.  The decision was taken by the Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) based on the UN's findings. Hamid Karzai, who had already proclaimed himself the winner of the elections, now says he is looking forward to the second round.

The only clear outcome of the chaotic elections in Afghanistan is that fraud does not always pay. The findings of the UN Complaints Commission brought the initial result into doubt by establishing that 'serious fraud' had taken place. For the last two months Afghanistan has hardly been governed. The international community has stood by and watched.

Newsline interviewed Alex Jackson, Policy Analyst from the International Council on Security and Development and asked him if there was any guarantee that the poll will be free or fair:

Praise
On 20 August, Afghan voters went to the polls for the very first time. After a very low turnout - and after some civil servants had openly tried to tamper with the result in their mud polling stations - Western politicians rushed to get to a microphone: "A success, a victory, excellent!" The praise was deafening. In The Hague, Dutch Development Minister Bert Koenders applauded the day's events.
 
It is not clear whether Western diplomats just didn't want to hear about or just didn't know about the reality on the ground in Afghanistan. Many were mainly relieved that the elections were relatively peaceful. They had feared scenes similar to the ones in Iraq. But it was already clear to the Afghans that corruption and fraud would be a bigger problem. Fraud was anticipated in the unruly southern province of Uruzgan, where Hamid Karzai's support is based, months ahead of the elections.
 
Large-scale fraud
It was the UN Complaints Commission that first revealed the extent of the corruption. And all of a sudden President Karzai was no longer the definite winner. In the meantime the IEC has admitted that Mr Karzai did not win 50 percent of the vote, which would have given him outright victory. Maarten Halff of the Complaints Commission says there was corruption throughout the country, with President Karzai's opponents also committing fraud:
 
"The fraud is serious. Spot checks were made at a number of polling stations which confirmed our suspicions. For instance there were polling stations where 600 votes had been cast, with 95 percent of the votes going to a single candidate. Here we were able to establish fraud had taken place on a very large scale."
 
A second round of elections has been called as a result of the fraud. This round will take place on 7 November.
 
Legitimacy
Meanwhile the question arises: what is it the Western countries of the NATO alliance want? They have tens of thousands of soldiers in Afghanistan, where the government is clearly not functioning properly. NATO, which one proudly said: "We are calling our mission an Assistance Force [ISAF stands for International Security and Assistance Force] and we are in Afghanistan at the request of Hamid Karzai," is now at a loss as to what to do next.
 
Immediately after the IEC announced a second round, Western leaders indicated they would monitor it better than they had the first. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has called for "effective international supervision to prevent fraud". Hamid Karzai has also responded to the decision, by thanking all Afghan voters, including the ones that did not vote for him.