UN: Must Have Less Fraud in Second Afghan Election
New York, Oct 26 2009 10:10AM
With just weeks to go before Afghans go back to the polls to choose between President Hamid Karzai and his challenger Abdullah Abdullah, the United Nations said today it wants to see a “better and cleaner” election in the 7 November run-off.
“We want to see less fraud in the run-off,” Aleem
Siddique, spokesperson for the UN Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan (UNAMA"><"http://unama.unmissions.org/default.aspx?/">UNAMA),
told a news conference in the capital, Kabul.
He said
UNAMA is supporting the efforts of the Independent Election
Commission (IEC) – tasked with organizing the 20 August
polls and the upcoming run-off – and other electoral
bodies to help ensure a final outcome that both candidates
can have faith in.
“We are now weeks away from the run-off, and we want to see a better and cleaner run-off than the first one that we saw,” he stated.
The
run-off was announced last week after the UN-backed
Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) found evidence of
fraud in the first round of voting.
Mr. Siddique
reiterated that the elections and the run-off are an
Afghan-led process. The UN is providing electoral support to
Afghanistan’s electoral institutions, in terms of
planning, logistics and oversight, through the UN
Development Programme’s ELECT project.
The IEC is
currently reviewing the number of polling locations and
staff required for the run-off. He noted that there is
likely to be a need for far less staff in the second round,
and the UN has received assurances from the IEC that certain
categories of staff will not be rehired.
“We expect
the IEC will not rehire staff who have either not followed
procedures correctly or were complicit in fraud,” said the
spokesperson.
In addition, it is expected that those staff who are unavailable to participate in the second round and those who choose not to work as part of the second round will not be rehired, he stated. “The significant reduction of staff we will see should reduce the opportunities for irregularities to occur or for potential or attempted fraud.”
While challenges remain, Mr. Siddique
explained that the run-off is going to be far simpler to
implement than the first round as there will only be one
election taking place between two candidates.
“There will be no let-up on the part of the United
Nations in supporting the electoral institutions in this
country so we can get the best possible run-off that we
can,” he pledged.
For more details go to UN News
Centre at http://www.un.org/news
ENDS