Afghan fraud probe depriving Karzai of outright win

A UN-backed watchdog overseeing Afghanistan's elections ordered votes from 210 polling stations thrown out yesterday in a move that observers said deprived President Hamid Karzai of an outright win.

Findings from the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) over the August 20 vote raise the prospect that Mr Karzai will be forced into a second round or intense diplomacy is needed to stitch together a national unity government.

Although he made no public comment after the ECC announcement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai pledged yesterday to "fully respect the constitutional order" after a UN-backed election probe appeared to wipe out an outright polls win, a UN spokesman said.

In telephone talks UN chief Ban Ki-Moon urged Karzai "to respect the constitutional process and he was pleased to hear that the President says he will fully respect the constitutional order," UN spokesman Michele Montas said.

The findings by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) raise the prospect that Mr Karzai will either be forced into run-off elections or enter intense negotiations to stitch together a national unity government.

Afghanistan's ECC said it found "clear and convincing evidence" of fraud, including entire ballot boxes with papers filled in with the same pen or same mark.

An independent US monitor said neither candidate had won outright, meaning Afghanistan could face a second round between Mr Karzai and main rival Abdullah Abdullah, although the two are expected to come to a political settlement.

The ECC said it ordered the Independent Election Commission (IEC) - the final arbiter of the election results - "to invalidate a certain percentage of each candidate's votes" and results from 210 polling stations.

The ECC findings, which it said were "final and binding", could see the IEC forced to call a run-off between Mr Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah.

Mr Karzai, against whom most of the ballot-stuffing allegations were made, leads preliminary results with about 55 per cent of the vote, with Mr Abdullah on around 28 per cent.

The ECC refused to divulge corrected results, but one Western diplomat and a res-pected election monitor said Mr Karzai's share of the vote had now fallen to about 48 per cent - not enough for outright victory.