Half of the most senior Afghan district election officials will be replaced, UN officials said today, to prevent more fraud in a run-off presidential poll crucial to the country's credibility and foreign support.
The announcement of a run-off to be held on November 7th removed one stumbling block for US President Barack Obama as he weighs whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban.
President Hamid Karzai's decision to accept the run-off against his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, came after days of diplomatic wrangling and helped ease tensions with the West.
Concerns about a repeat of the widespread fraud that tainted the first round in August cast a long shadow as hasty preparations for the second round kicked off today.
Mr Karzai yesterday agreed to face a second round after a UN-led fraud watchdog inquiry tossed out enough of his August 20th first-round votes to push him below 50 per cent and trigger a run-off.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan, which provides assistance with election-related operations, said preparations were under way to block any risk of mass fraud.
Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the UN mission in Afghanistan, said 200 of 380 district election chiefs from the government-appointed Independent Election Commission (IEC) were fired after the fraud watchdog found evidence of widespread fraud and vote-fixing.
"More than half of the district field coordinators are being replaced to prevent any attempted fraud or because there have been complaints made against them by candidates and observers," said Mr Siddique.
In his first remarks since yesterday's announcement, Mr Abdullah said his team was mapping out specific conditions and recommendations to avoid any risk of fraud.
"We have certain suggestions, recommendations and conditions in order to avoid widespread massive fraud in the upcoming elections based on the experiences of the last round of elections," said Mr Abdullah, Mr Karzai's former foreign minister.
"Last night, I contacted Mr Karzai and I thanked him for his words and for his acceptance of the outcome of the elections," he told reporters at his Kabul home.
Meanwhile, many within Mr Obama's Democratic Party have spoken out against sending more troops, while Republican opponents say his lengthy deliberations on a new strategy are undermining US troops and emboldening the Taliban.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates dismissed reports of rifts between Mr Obama's military and civilian advisers on the Afghan war strategy.
"These rumours of some kind of rift are just not accurate and do not reflect the close working effort between our military and civilians," Mr Gates told a news conference today during a visit to Japan.
Mr Gates said the problems over the legitimacy of the Afghan government would not be resolved by a run-off alone and described the situation as an "evolutionary process".
"Clearly, having the run-off, getting it behind us and then moving forward is very important," he said.
Election officials face a logistical nightmare, having just over two weeks to prepare for a second round of voting in a race against the harsh and fast-encroaching Afghan winter, which makes much of the mountainous country inaccessible.
Mr Siddique said NATO and the IEC would meet to discuss preparations for the second round.
"All the ballot materials are now in the country and are being packed ready for distribution to the provinces," he said.
A second round of voting also carries great security implications. While not able to completely disrupt the August 20th vote, Taliban attacks around the country kept many voters away from the polling stations.
The Afghan defence ministry said government forces were working with the United Nations and international forces for coordinating security arrangements for the second round.
Afghanistan's IEC was due to address reporters on its plans later today.
Reuters