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More than 1m Hamid Karzai votes 'suspicious', says EU
Up to 1.5 million votes cast in the Afghan presidential elections are suspicious, including a third of those tallied for Hamid Karzai, European Union observers have said.
The number of questionable votes is so large that cancelling them would take Mr Karzai below the 50 per cent threshold needed for an outright first round victory and prompt a protracted second round of voting.
The disclosure came as preliminary results appeared to hand Mr Karzai victory, with the international community in turmoil over how to rescue an election rapidly losing credibility.
Afghan electoral officials announced that with all polling stations counted, Mr Karzai had 54.6 per cent of the vote and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah 27.7 per cent.
Thousands of complaints of fraud and allegations of massive "state-sponsored" vote rigging have threatened to make the result illegitimate in the eyes of Afghans.
Sharp divisions about how to handle the crisis were highlighted with the departure of the Peter Galbraith, United Nations mission deputy chief, after he clashed with his senior, Kai Eide.
A final certified result is still weeks off as the UN-backed elections watchdog trawls complaints and decides whether to cast out votes which could alter the results.
With a choice between a fraudulent Karzai victory, a protracted second round beset by a harsh winter, or political vacuum until a delayed run-off next spring, diplomats have admitted there are "no good options on the table".
Proposals for a national unity government have been undermined by the enmity between the two leading candidates.
Dimitra Ioannou, deputy EU chief observer, said: "Large scale ballot stuffing took place at polling station level and all those results were allowed to be entered in the tally centre and uploaded on the website as good results." She said 1.1 million of Mr Karzai's votes were suspicious, while Dr Abdullah had 300,000 suspect votes and Ramazan Bashardost 92,000.
Observers found the potential fraud by applying statistical safeguards which were originally built into the election count until they were lifted by Karzai-appointed officials.
If all the votes were cancelled, Mr Karzai's percentage would slip from 54 per cent to 46 per cent and Dr Abdullah would rise from 28 per cent to 31, Mrs Ioannou said.
Mr Karzai's campaign denounced the EU announcement. A statement from his campaign office said: "Today's announcement of the number of suspected votes, by the head and deputy head of the EU Election Monitoring Commission, is partial, irresponsible and in contradiction with Afghanistan's constitution."