Pro-Westerners to vie in presidential runoff election

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s presidential election last month produced no outright winner, authorities said yesterday, forcing a June 14 runoff between two pro-Western front-runners who both favor signing a longdelayed security pact with Washington.

The formation of a new government based on the second round’s results will mark the first peaceful transition of power through the ballot in Afghan history.

None of the eight candidates won outright last month to succeed Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Announcing the final results of the April 5 presidential vote, Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, chairman of Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, said no single candidate among eight contenders won the race to succeed President Hamid Karzai, who could not run for re-election because of a term limit.

“None of the candidates secured 51 percent, and the election will go into a second round,” Nuristani said.

More than 7 million Afghans — about 58 percent of the country’s 12 million registered voters — turned out to cast ballots, he said, despite threats from Taliban insurgents to attack polling places or punish those who participated in the election. He said 36 percent of the participating voters were women.

Final results showed that former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who became a top opposition leader during Karzai’s tenure, received 45 percent of the vote. In the runoff, Abdullah will face Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister and World Bank economist, who came in second with 31.6 percent of the vote.

A national survey conducted in mid-March by Kabul-based ACSOR-Surveys found a virtual dead heat in a potential runoff between Abdullah and Ghani, driven by ethnic and regional divisions. But more than 7 in 10 Afghans in the poll said they are ready to accept the eventual winner as the country’s legitimate leader.

Both men will have a threeweek campaign period before the June 14 runoff, Nuristani said, with final results to be announced by July 2.

The runoff means that Karzai will remain in office for several additional weeks. Under the Afghan constitution, he can remain in charge until his successor is elected.

It also means further delay in signing the security pact that Washington wanted to have in place by the end of 2013.

Both Ghani and Abdullah are viewed as moderate and have pledged to work with the United States to keep up pressure on the Taliban insurgents.