Afghan Elections: Second Round To Take Place On November 7

Hamid Karzai and his opponent Abdullah Abdullah will both take part in the election run-off. The second round takes place after a fraud investigation revealed that Karzai’s share of the vote in the first round was below 50 percent. The flurry of international pressure in the last few days had given  Karzai  two options. Either to form a unity government with Abdullah Abdullah or face his opponent in a run-off.

President Obama reacted quickly in regard to the announcement, and said that Karzai’s decision to take part in a second round was an important precedent for Afghan democracy. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown went even further and said that “the President’s decision showed statesmanlike leadership.”

The announcement of the second round come after the Electoral Complaints Commission had ordered to invalidate 1.3 million votes, which is a quarter of all the votes.

A lot of questions remain unanswered concerning the second round. Afghans are not only disillusioned with Karzai, but a lot of them by the electoral process itself. How low the turn out will be, and how the Taliban will impact on it ? Are the main two questions. The Taliban had called for a boycott of the first round and are likely to do the same for the second round. The other key question is how to prevent the “statesmanlike leader” (according to PM Brown) Karzai to try to steal the elections again?