Updated on
Summary
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Afghan President Hamid Karzai will announce how he plans to proceed in the Afghan elections and she is encouraged by the way events are headed. He is going to announce his intentions. I am going to let him do that, but I am encouraged at the direction that the situation is moving. International observers are calling for an election run-off in Afghanistan after a UN backed fraud watchdog invalidated tens of thousands of votes for Karzai from August's disputed first round. US group Democracy International said the Electoral Complaints Commission's report showed the number of votes invalidated by the UN backed group pushed Karzai's total below the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off against his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. Karzai's camp does not want a second round, but analysts and Western observers have long said he would likely win one. The disputed vote has fanned tension between President Hamid Karzai and Western governments whose troops are fighting a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.
