Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) completes probe into allegations of voting fraud; Karzai’s vote share said to drop to 47 per cent; Rahm Emmanuel: Need for a legitimate Afghan government to be formed before US can take a decision on troop strength;
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  • Reports noted that the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) had completed the probe into allegations of fraud in voting and that the percentage of votes cast for President Karzai in the August 20 polls had reduced to 47 per cent from 54.6 percent. This could lead to a runoff as the vote share had come down to less than 50 percent.1 The White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel told CNN that Afghan election results should be seen as credible for a legitimate government to be formed before the US can make a decision on increasing its troop strength.2
    The Washington Post reported on October 12 that the Pentagon will deploy at least 13,000 more troops to Afghanistan, over and above the 21,000 announced in March 2009. These extra troops could include support forces like engineers, medical personnel, intelligence experts and military police.3 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also announced on October 14 that 500 more troops would be sent to Afghanistan and urged NATO allies to undertake “fair burden-sharing.” Brown told the House of Commons that these extra troops would meet the need for larger forces in the Taliban-infested Helmand province.4
    In other developments, David S. Cohen, US Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing, at a conference on countering money-laundering stated that the Taliban were in a much stronger financial position than al-Qaeda. He also charged that the Taliban resorted to a series of criminal activities to finance attacks on international troops.5

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