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Unease grows over Afghan election
Just below the surface during this languid Ramadan month, as officials issue bland statements on the latest incremental tally from last month's presidential election, a political crisis is building that no one seems to know how to prevent.
With the election mired in charges of fraud, President Hamid Karzai and his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, both insist that the electoral review process now underway will vindicate their side and salvage the country's stumbling democratic experiment.
But the public is impatient for results, and Karzai has unofficially passed the 50 percent vote minimum he needs to win. On Saturday, election officials said Karzai was leading Abdullah 54 percent to 28 percent, with 92 percent of polling stations counted. Now, many Afghans and foreign officials say the fraud probe can only taint that result without offering a viable way to fix it.
If the U.N.-backed review panel concludes that Karzai legitimately won reelection in the Aug. 20 vote, analysts say that no one in Abdullah's camp would believe it, and that the country could erupt into factional violence. The panel could also conclude that enough votes were invalid, requiring a new election. Many people say a second poll would be too costly, dangerous, fraud-plagued and logistically impossible once winter weather sets in.