Afghanistan presidential election goes to runoff round

Afghan voters will return to the polls next month to choose a successor to outgoing President Hamid Karzai after the lack of an absolute majority required a second-round runoff in mid-June between Abdullah Abdullah, a former opposition leader, and ex–World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.

The second round of voting was announced Thursday in Kabul, and the balloting was set for June 14. The eventual winner is poised to take charge at a crucial time, with most foreign troops due to withdraw by the end of the year, the Taliban insurgency still raging and an agreement with Washington permitting some U.S. forces to stay hanging in the balance.

Meanwhile, with a spring offensive, the Taliban insurgency has renewed its campaign of attacks on the Afghan police and military, increasing fears over security when voters head to the polls. The Taliban have pledged to disrupt the vote with bombings and other attacks, although the first round on April 5 passed relatively free of violence.

Abdullah garnered 45 percent of votes in the first round, while Ahmadzai came in second with 31.6 percent, Independent Election Commission Chairman Ahmad Yousuf Nouristani said.

The final results announced by Nouristani were almost exactly the same as the preliminary results released late last month.

More than 7 million Afghans — 36 percent of whom were women — voted in the first round, an election that was plagued by Taliban threats and logistical hardships for both voters and poll workers.

Of 18,000 polling stations in total, 331 were declared invalid over fraud allegations and 777 received no voters.

Well over 500 polling stations closed on election day because of security concerns.

The head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan commended the candidates for running "a hard-fought but positive campaign."

"I hope that the prevailing respectful tone seen in the first round is preserved in the weeks ahead," said Jan Kubis, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for Afghanistan. "Candidates have a responsibility to call on their supporters to refrain from inflammatory rhetoric, intimidation, and threats."

But James Dobbins, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said there's a risk that the cordial tone between candidates in the first round could sharpen in the second round.

"The quality of the first-round campaign was good, the candidates were moderate and positive, treated each other courteously and didn't appeal to ethnic, religious or sectarian issues," Dobbins said Tuesday in Tokyo, where he was taking part in a meeting of the International Contact Group on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The second round could become a little more negative potentially; it could be more potentially divisive," Dobbins said. "I'm not predicting this, but it's something that one worries about a bit."

Earlier this week, Abdullah picked up a potential election-tipping endorsement in Zalmai Rassoul, an ex–foreign minister who took 11.5 percent in the first round.

But it's unclear whether Rassoul can deliver the votes of his supporters, who are largely Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group.

International attention is also focused on whether the new president will sign a deal already negotiated by Karzai to allow some U.S. forces to stay in Afghanistan after the end of the year.

Both Abdullah and Ahmadzai have said they support the deal.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press