An audit by the United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission, ECC, has found that President Hamid Karzai did not obtain enough votes for an outright win in the 20 August election.

The head of the commission, Grant Kippen, said the scale of voting irregularities was extremely high. Although official results had given President Karzai nearly 55 percent of the vote, well over the 50 percent threshold, the ECC ordered that ballots from 210 polling stations be discounted.

President Karzai's portion of the vote is now around 48 percent, which means he must face a run-off election with his chief rival Abdullah Abdullah, whom according to official results obtained 28 percent of the ballots.

President Karzai has disputed the findings. Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission must now decide whether to call a second round within the next two weeks. A White House spokesperson responded to the findings of the UN-backed complaints commission by saying that it is "incredibly important" that Afghanistan demonstrate that it has a legitimate government.
 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai
Photo by Wikimedia Commons