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Afghan police keep watch after a suicide attack - Source: Reuters -
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Afghanistan will hardly have enough time to provide full
security during a presidential election run-off in November, a
senior official said as preparations for the second round entered
full swing.
With violence in Afghanistan at its worst levels in eight years of
war, the run-off poll comes as US President Barack Obama weighs
whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to battle a
resurgent Taliban.
Afghanistan also faces a logistical nightmare ahead of the November
7 vote that pits incumbent Hamid Karzai against Abdullah Abdullah,
his main challenger and a former foreign minister, with the harsh
winter closing in fast.
Karzai agreed to the run-off this week after a UN-led fraud inquiry
invalidated enough of his votes from the August 20 first round to
push him below 50% and trigger the second round under Afghan
electoral law.
Concerns about security and a repeat of the fraud that tainted the
first round have already cast a large shadow after weeks of
political uncertainty.
Daoud Ali Najafi, chief electoral officer of the
government-appointed Independent Election Commission (IEC), said he
was worried security forces would have enough time to make the
thousands of polling stations safe for voters.
"I don't think they are able to secure (polling centres) in time
for the second round. Security is really a big concern for us,"
Najafi said.
A string of attacks around the country during the first round kept
many people away from polling stations even though the Taliban, who
had vowed to disrupt the election, were not able to derail the vote
completely.
Urgent steps
The coming onset of winter, which makes large parts of the
mountainous country inaccessible, is also a big worry.
The International Republican Institute, whose observers monitored
the August vote, urged Afghanistan and its foreign backers to take
urgent steps to resolve security and other concerns.
"Afghanistan faces a number of challenges in preparing for and
holding a run-off election," it said in a statement.
Najafi said he had held meetings with NATO and Afghanistan's
defence and interior ministries and had submitted a list of polling
centres which needed to be secured before polling day.
The UN mission in Afghanistan, which provides assistance with
elections, has started distributing ballot materials around the
country.
It has already said many district officials would be replaced as
part of efforts to prevent fraud.
The IEC has also vowed to prosecute anyone suspected of having
committed fraud.
For the West, the election is a key element in efforts to stabilise
Afghanistan and deny sanctuary to militants believed to have used
it as a base for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United
States.
In Bratislava, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged
member states to step up their efforts to train and equip Afghan
forces, warning that inaction would have serious
consequences.
NATO, like Washington, eventually wants Afghan security to take
over defence tasks, a mission Rasmussen said was vital for the
security of the region.
The poll also poses a logistical challenge in the mountainous
nation where election officials have to rely on UN planes, trucks
and donkeys to deliver ballots to far flung locations.
As preparations unfolded, a military helicopter crashed in northern
Afghanistan, causing casualties, a senior intelligence official
said.
It was not yet clear whether the aircraft was Afghan or
foreign.
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