After two months of mounting uncertainty and anxiety, the final results of Afghanistan’s presidential election were announced by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Tuesday, October 20. No candidate secured the 50-percent-plus-one vote needed to avoid a runoff, and a second round is scheduled for November 7.

Following the decision of the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) which ordered the IEC to invalidate nearly 1.3 million after it found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud,” the tally for the leading candidate, President Hamid Karzai, dropped from nearly 55 percent to just below 50 percent.

The IEC, while expressing “reservations regarding the decisions of the ECC” announced that the runoff would be held on November 7 between Karzai and his main challenger, former foreign minister, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. The decision to press ahead with the runoff was due to “time constraints, the imminent arrival of winter and existence of problems in the country,” said the IEC in a statement issued to the media.
At a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Karzai, flanked by Senator John Kerry, chairman of US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kai Eide, UN Special Representative, and other western officials, accepted the IEC’s decision and the need for a second round of voting.

Widespread fraud and irregularities, reported by multiple international and domestic electoral watchdogs, had badly marred the August 20 vote. A scandal involving the United Nations, in which former Deputy Special Representative Peter Galbraith accused his boss of covering up the fraud to protect Karzai, also contributed to a loss of faith in the elections.

Dr. Abdullah has said that he is ready to face Karzai in a runoff; however, he has not rejected talks about a power-sharing agreement. But Abdullah insists that his goal has always been to bring change to the country, not simply to get one or two posts in the cabinet.

“While I am prepared to go for a runoff, at the same time the door is open,” Abdullah told CNN on Monday. “There are some practical questions ahead,” he noted, citing winter, the security situation “and other realities on the ground.”

Karzai has apparently ruled out a coalition government.

“The coalition has no legitimacy and is not possible”, he said at Tuesday’s press conference.  Karzai insisted that he favors a “national unity government”.

Despite the IEC, the organization responsible for holding the elections, has said that it is ready to conduct a runoff; but imminent arrival of winter, and the deteriorating security situation, and other difficulties on the ground, are a huge challenge for the organization to hold a transparent and fair runoff.

The most important question now is how to avoid the same mistakes that were made in the first round. There are also questions as to whether the IEC is a reliable conduit for free and fair elections.

So far, there are more questions than answers.