Obama praises Karzai on runoff

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.”

In his remarks at the White House, Obama praised the work of U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, who was joined in talks in Kabul over the weekend by Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Obama also acknowledged the work of American troops fighting in Afghanistan.

“President Karzai’s constructive actions established an important precedent for Afghanistan’s new democracy,” Obama said in a statement issued earlier Tuesday. “The Afghan constitution and laws are strengthened by President Karzai’s decision, which is in the best interests of the Afghan people.”

In reviewing its strategy for the war in Afghanistan — including contemplation of sending tens of thousands more U.S. troops next year — the White House has publicly questioned whether the Afghan government is too corrupt to serve as a worthwhile partner in the fight against a Taliban insurgency.

Administration officials on Tuesday appeared to signal that Karzai had taken a step in the right direction.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed Karzai’s announcement as a boost for Afghan democracy. She made no direct mention of the fraudulent Karzai votes that were thrown out, although she referred to “a rough and contentious” election and weeks of “debate over the flaws in the vote.”

“We remain committed to partnering with the Afghan people and their government on our shared objectives of strengthening good governance, tackling corruption, increasing economic opportunities and improving security for all Afghans,” she said in a written statement.

Obama remains under pressure from some Republicans to complete his strategy review and decide on troop levels.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a leading advocate of bolstering U.S. troop levels, said Tuesday he was pleased by Karzai’s decision and argued that improved security is the key to building a credible Kabul government.

“It is unrealistic to expect Afghan governance to improve significantly without improved security,” Mc- Cain said. “That is why it is essential to implement the properly resourced counterinsurgency strategy that Gen. Stanley McChrystal and our senior commanders have called for, and that is why I continue to urge President Obama to provide our military and civilian leaders in Afghanistan with the resources they need as quickly as possible.”