KABUL, 12 October 2004 — The crisis surrounding Afghanistan’s historic presidential election appeared to end yesterday as President Hamid Karzai’s chief rival said he and other candidates were withdrawing their rejection of the weekend poll.
Millions of Afghans took part in Saturday’s poll, the first time the impoverished, war-torn nation voted for a president, but all 15 of Karzai’s challengers announced a boycott, saying a system to prevent multiple voting had failed.
“We want unity in this election, not a boycott,” ethnic Tajik commander Yunus Qanuni told reporters after intermediaries, including US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, interceded in the row.
“The people want it and we appreciate their feelings.”
Qanuni said he was speaking for several candidates but not all. But his acquiescence means the end of the most serious opposition to the poll, which was held under the shadow of threats of violence by Taleban insurgents.
US-backed Karzai, favorite to win the election, had appealed to his rivals to respect what he called “national jubilation” over the vote.
The election commission, the Joint Election Management Body (JEMB), had earlier announced the setting up of a panel to investigate irregularities and called on Karzai’s rivals to submit complaints by this evening.
“The JEMB has decided to request the UN to identify an impartial panel of international electoral experts to fully investigate these protests and present recommendations to the JEMB for its adjudication,” it said in a statement.
One JEMB official, J. Ray Kennedy, said the vote count would be delayed until it was known how to handle suspect ballots. “We are hoping all this will be in place by the end of the day tomorrow (Tuesday),” Kennedy said.
Khalilzad and others had persuaded powerful candidates to drop their refusal to recognize the result, Western diplomats and candidates said. “Qanuni and Mohaqiq have shown willingness to drop the boycott demand after meetings with Khalilzad,” said one candidate, referring to Hazara chieftain Mohammad Mohaqiq.
“Khalilzad urged them to do so in return for accommodating them somehow in the future government.”
US President George W. Bush, facing his own election battle next month, has claimed the Afghan vote as a foreign policy success and is hoping it can be mirrored in war-torn Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking in Macedonia, said the media had played up the negative side of the poll.
Meanwhile, an exit poll conducted by an American nonprofit group found that Karzai won the election with the outright majority needed to avoid a second round. The survey by the International Republican Institute found Karzai ahead of Qanuni by 43 percentage points. The group would not give specific vote totals for either man, nor did it release supporting data.
