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Afghanistan makes plans for Karzai-Abdullah run-off

Al'P, Kabul
Afghanistan has begun contingency plans for a potential run-off to its deeply controversial presidential election as officers recount hundreds of thousands of suspect votes, officials said yesterday.
The Independent Election Commission (1EC), which has come under fire for favouring incumbent Hamid Karzai who leads a preliminary vote count, has previously denied that any preparations were being made for a run-off.
Afghans voted on August 20 for a new president in only the second such election in their history and one held amid a vicious Taliban insurgency against the Western-backed government, which deterred voters.
The 1EC released preliminary results this week, giving Karzai a clear majority of 54.6 percent -- beyond the threshold of 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a run-off - and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah 27.8 percent.
Abdullah has called for a run-off
against Karzai, whom he accuses of massive vole-rigging and observers have suggested that recounts of suspect votes could slim down Karzai's margin enough to force a second round.
The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) has ordered recounts at more than 2,500 polling stations, around 10 percent of the total, after it found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud",
EU observers also identified 1.5 million votes that could be fraudulent nearly a quarter of the total valid votes and 1.1 of them cast for Kdrzai.
"If a run-off takes place, we will be ready. We cannot wait, we have started getting ready," an IEC official told AFP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
"Our colleagues are now in London, where they have designed and prepared the ballot papers to be printed for the run off, " the official added.
"We are printing the ballot papers in London for safety reasons, we could print them in Afghanistan but we decided not
to so as to avoid fraud. That could just undermine the run-off process.
"For the election we printed 40 million papers, both for presidential and parlia mentary elections, but this time it's going to be only 17 million."
Karzai told a televised news conference on Thursday that any fraud during the August 20 elections was minimal --and normal -- promising to respect any decision made by the IEC once investigations are complete.
The IEC has the power to call for a runoff or declare a victor, once all investigations are complete - which officials involved in the process say will take another two to three weeks.
Under Afghan electoral law, a run-off should take place within two weeks of the final results being announced. One Western official working with electoral authorities said Friday that mid-October seemed most likely.
Any later than early November and the weather would be too severe in mountainous regions, and a run-off would have to wait until early next year.