Afghanistan's presidential election run-off will be closely watched for any evidence of fraud or other problems, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.
"I think everybody is clearly going to be attentive to this," Gates told a news conference, when asked whether NATO ministers at an upcoming meeting would seek assurances from President Hamid Karzai to prevent vote fraud.
"Everybody has an interest in making sure that there are as few problems with this run-off election as possible in terms of providing legitimacy for the winning candidate," he said.
The second round will be held on November 7 following reports of massive fraud in the first round in August, mainly in Karzai's favour.
Continues Below ↓
Gates was speaking at the end of a visit to South Korea. He was to leave later Thursday for the meeting of Nato defence ministers in Slovakia.
Asked about security problems surrounding the run-off, Gates said almost all countries that increased troop levels before the August polls had kept the additional forces in Afghanistan.
"And so they are in a position to try along with the Afghan army and police counterparts to provide as good security as possible for the elections." - Sapa-AFP
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
