Hamid Karzai could face new vote after Afghanistan election recounts

Ballots from about a tenth of Afghanistan's polling stations are to be recounted after evidence surfaced of widespread fraud, possibly forcing President Hamid Karzai to face another round of voting.

News of the recount came as a bitter split emerged inside the international community today over how to deal with the election debacle. The split led to the abrupt departure of the top American official in the United Nations mission, Peter Galbraith, who had pushed for a more aggressive response to vote-rigging than that pursued by his boss, the Norwegian head of the mission, Kai Eide.

The personal split, following a head to head row over the UN's strategy, mirrors a wide difference of opinion among troop-contributing nations involved in the war, over how to deal with overwhelming evidence of fraud committed by a government their soldiers are fighting to maintain.

After a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels, the German minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "We will press for an investigation of all fraud allegations. It is important that the elected president is recognised and respected by the entire population of Afghanistan."

With over 90% of the votes counted from the first round on 20 August, Karzai leads with 54% of the vote against 28% by his closest challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. Today it was announced that a ruling by the UN-backed Election Complaints Commission meant that votes from 2,500 polling stations out of a total of 26,300, would have to be recounted.

It was unclear how votes would be affected, but it raised the possibility that Karzai's total could diminish to below 50%, in which case he would have to fight a second round against Abdullah.

However, the recount is likely to take weeks and might not be completed until the onset of the Afghan winter in the mountain provinces, making a second round impractical. Nato officials say they are confident a resolution will be found, but the sudden departure of Galbraith underlined the disagreements and anxiety within the international community in Kabul.

The UN spokesman there, Aleem Siddique, said Galbraith was "currently on mission to New York".

"Peter Galbraith remains an integral part of the UN mission leadership, both Mr Galbraith and Mr Eide are committed to supporting a credible election outcome. In any hotly contested election there are bound to de differences of opinion. However, on the issue of these elections, both the UN envoy and his deputy are united in ensuring a credible outcome for Afghan's voters," Siddique said.

Diplomats said Galbraith had been the target of withering criticism from the Karzai government and some of the Afghan press, for his outspoken style and his insistence that the ECC, which is made up of three foreign and two Afghan commissioners, should take an aggressive approach towards the Afghan-run Independent Election Commission (IEC). Eide has insisted the IEC take the lead, for fear of giving the impression the process was being dictated by foreigners.

Siddique said the two men remained in close touch and would meet up at the end of the month to report to the UN in New York.