Afghan Rivals Asked to Respect Election Results

Both the United States and France have taken a similar stance on the election in Afghanistan. The election held on August 20 still has undecided results. The accusations of vote fraud keep coming in throughout the country. One of President Obama's top advisers said that the two competitors, President Hamid Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, need to find a way to make the Afghan people respect the results. The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said on CNN's "State of the Union" that there are two roads that can be taken. The first is to have a runoff election between the two candidates. The other is a negotiation between the two candidates. Either way the people have to end up with a credible government. France's Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner made a similar statement in Kabul on Sunday as well. Originally it was thought that Karzai held about 54 percent of the votes. However, the U.N.-backed Complaints Commission could be able to discard enough votes to put Karzai under the 50 percent mark, which would force a runoff election. Kouchner thinks that if a runoff election is held, Karzai would likely be the winner. The issue at hand is that decisions need to be made quickly. It hasn't been said when the election results will be official, but there is a tentative runoff election date of November 1. Winter weather and security are becoming Kouchner's biggest concerns to making sure that the election is as legitimate as possible.

By Kelly Martin