Brussels - Afghanistan must hold a second-round poll in its presidential election process if verified results call for it, Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt, current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, said Monday. "Everyone who was part of the electoral process (should) fully respect all parts of the agreed procedures, including the work of the Election Complaints Commission (ECC) ... If these results point towards the need for a second round, a second round must be held," Bildt said after talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
The United Nations-backed ECC was expected later on Monday to announce its rulings on allegedly fraudulent ballots from the August 20 Afghan presidential election.
Information about the results of the ECC's findings leaked to the media put President Hamid Karzai's share of the vote below 50 per cent, which would force him to take part in a run-off with his top challenger and former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah.
Karzai won re-election according to the preliminary results and is thought likely to reject the verdict of the ECC if it forces him into a runoff vote. The incumbent is under mounting pressure from his government's Western allies to accept the outcome.
The EU strongly supports the UN mission in Afghanistan, and its chief Kai Eide, Bildt stressed. Over the last fortnight, Eide has come under international pressure because his sacked deputy, Peter Galbraith, accused him of covering up election fraud.
At a separate briefing in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the credibility of the Afghan election process would be critical to the West's engagement there.
"There is a strong need for the international community to have a credible and accountable government in Kabul (...) with which we can engage and make sure the government is considered credible by the Afghan people," he said.
NATO currently has close on 68,000 troops serving in Afghanistan and locked in an increasingly bitter fight with Taliban-linked insurgents. Casualties have soared this year, and public support for the mission is on the wane in NATO states.
Last week, Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, wrote in a Twitter feed that the alliance gave the impression of "looming capitulation" in Afghanistan, and that "Russia and its Central Asian partners should be ready for such a dramatic scenario."
Lavrov distanced himself from those remarks on Monday, saying, "We do not want the international security effort to fail in Afghanistan."
If NATO fails it will have a serious impact on terrorism and the drugs trade in Russia and Central Asia, and Russia is therefore doing "all we can" to help the mission, he said.
The NATO mission was approved by the United Nations, a body over which Russia holds the right of veto, Lavrov pointed out.
