Brussels, 15/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - Although the wait for the presidential election results of 20 August is proving to be a very long one, the EU is prepared to give the Afghan election process the “time it needs”. The Swedish minister for foreign affairs, Carl Bildt, drove this message home at the end of External Relations Council on Tuesday 15 September because he said what counted was for the official result to be definitive and “credible”, so that the future government can begin the reforms needed for stabilising the country. Mr Bildt stated that “the process (vote counting, tackling cases of fraud and other misdemeanours, partial recount, etc) will still take time. No-one was expecting the elections to be perfect”. The acting president of the Council asserted that the EU supports the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) and does not want to “dictate” in any way. EU High Representative for the CFSP Javier Solana shares this view and stated: “There should be no hurry; what counts is having a credible result in the end”. The ECC is in charge of examining the numerous accusations of fraud and has just announced that it will be examining the votes in 10% of the voting stations.
Mr Bildt also said he was in favour of having an international conference on Afghanistan, in Kabul, which was proposed by Paris, Berlin and London for before the end of the year. Bildt said that if this proves possible, “I would prefer the conference to take place in Kabul”. Commissioner Olli Rehn, who takes over from Benita Ferrero-Waldner also said that holding a conference in the Afghan capital would send out a “strong political message”. (H.B./transl.rh)