Obama administration accepts Karzai victory
The Obama administration has accepted Mr Karzai's victory
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By Richard James. |  |
Tuesday, 29, Sep 2009 09:16
By Richard James.
The United States and Britain have accepted Hamid Karzai as the winner of Afghanistan's controversial presidential election, reports claim.
Western powers have been reluctant to formally accept any result from the historic poll in August after allegations of widespread vote-rigging and suggestions up to 20 per cent of ballots were fraudulent.
Provisional results have already declared Mr Karzai as the winner, although the final official results have yet to be released.
The US in particular, however, now appears to have conceded that Mr Karzai will be president of Afghanistan for another five years due to the fact that a second round of voting will ultimately result in victory for the incumbent president.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is said to have conveyed the acceptance to her Afghan counterpart last week, the Times newspaper reports.
Mrs Clinton met with Rangin Dadfar Spanta on Friday where she announced that along with foreign secretary David Miliband and her Nato colleagues, she accepted Mr Karzai's victory.
The decision, however, will put increased pressure on president Barack Obama with regard to the decision to send more troops to a country ultimately perceived as being corrupt.
The western allies had hoped the August elections would prove the eight-year campaign had brought some form of stability to Afghanistan.