Fraud probe invalidates Afghan ballots

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.N.-backed commission charged with investigating fraud in Afghanistan's recent presidential election Monday invalidated ballots from more than 200 polling stations.

 However, it is still unclear if a presidential runoff will take place.

The Electoral Complaints Commission ordered Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission to invalidate 210 polling stations where it found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud" in the August 20 presidential election.

Meanwhile, an analysis of election data by the non-governmental organization Democracy International, showed Afghan President Hamid Karzai did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff election.

Under Afghan law, the ECC is the final arbiter of fraud but the IEC has the authority to order a runoff, if needed.

There was no immediate reaction from the IEC. Its spokesman recently said that the IEC would need "a day or two" to examine the ECC's final report before making an announcement on a runoff.

The 210 polling stations account for less than 4 percent of the more than 6,000 polling stations available during the election. But it is unclear how many votes that would affect and whether it would bring Karzai below the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff against his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Last month, final uncertified results showed Karzai with 54 percent of the vote.

 The ECC also recommended that each candidates' overall percentage of the vote be reduced according to previous criteria it set forth as part of its "investigation of polling stations that were highly suspicious of fraud."

In addition, the ECC decided that 18 polling stations the IEC had quarantined because of fraud suspicions may be included in the results. It is also unclear how many votes that represents.

 Some analysts believe that Karzai and Abdullah could be using the time before the IEC rules on a runoff to cut some sort of deal.

A deal could involve Karzai admitting he did not get the required 50 percent of the vote, but Abdullah forgoing a runoff in exchange for positions within the new government for himself and possibly his supporters.

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, returned to Kabul from Islamabad, Pakistan, on Monday, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said. She said his visit was "for a brief period to continue his consultations and discussions."

Kerry is pushing President Obama not to send more troops to Afghanistan before the results of the election are clear.

"It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country, when we don't even have an election finished and know who the president is and what kind of government we're working in, with," Kerry told CNN's John King in an interview which aired Sunday on "State of the Union."

The United States and France are urging Karzai and Abdullah to respect the results of the August election to ensure the country has a legitimate government.

 Afghan election officials have tentatively set November 1 as the date for a runoff if one is necessary. If the election were not held by early November, winter weather would make voting impossible and force a delay until spring of 2010, according to Said Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States.

Such a delay, he warned, would be a "recipe for disaster" that would create confusion in Afghanistan and heighten tension between the United States and Karzai's government.