Obama cites higher hope for Afghanistan democracy

[unhappycamper]

Obama cites higher hope for Afghanistan democracy
By ROBERT BURNS
AP National Security Write

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday applauded Afghan President Hamid Karzai for accepting election fraud findings that invalidated nearly a third of the votes cast for him in August.

Obama said the breakthrough offers new hope that a credible Kabul government will emerge to partner with the U.S. and NATO in battling a resurgent Taliban insurgency and blocking al-Qaida's return.

Obama told reporters that he spoke by phone with the Afghan president after Karzai bowed to U.S. pressure and announced that he agreed to a runoff election Nov. 7, acknowledging that he fell short of a majority in the first balloting.

The original vote count had put Karzai well above the 50 percent mark he needed to be declared the outright winner, but a U.N.-based investigation determined that hundreds of thousands of his votes were tainted. Until Tuesday it was unclear whether Karzai would accept the findings and agree to a runoff.

"President Karzai and the other candidates have shown that they have the interests of the Afghan people at heart," Obama said. "This is a reflection of a commitment to the rule of law and the insistence that the Afghan people's will should be done."


Rest of article at: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_US_AFGHANISTAN?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


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