Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Afghanistan’s UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission ordered a recount and examination of some ballots in the Aug. 20 presidential election, saying it had found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud” in the vote.

The order came as results released by the country’s election authority showed President Hamid Karzai nearing the majority of votes required -- 50 percent plus one vote -- to be elected. It was the first official confirmation of fraud that independent election monitors say risks undermining the credibility of the vote and the next Afghan government.

The Obama administration voiced hopes this year that the election will strengthen Afghanistan’s democracy and its government for the battle against Taliban guerrillas.

With 74.2 percent of polling stations tallied, the official count shows Karzai with 48.6 percent of the vote to 31.7 percent for his main rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Abdullah released photos and videos that he said showed Karzai’s backers stuffing ballot boxes in southern Afghanistan, where violence by Taliban guerrillas kept turnout low.

Karzai’s campaign has denied any role in vote fraud. Campaign spokesman Wahid Omar could not immediately be reached following the recount order.

The contest between Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun from the south, and Abdullah, whose support is rooted among non-Pashtun northerners, risks reviving Afghanistan’s most historically troublesome ethnic divide. Karzai faces a runoff against Abdullah if he fails to win a majority in the vote count.

Fraud Evidence

The complaints commission ordered the election authority, called the Independent Election Commission, to recount ballots from any polling place where the turnout appeared to equal or exceed 100 percent. The recounts also were ordered for any polling place that received as many as 100 votes if any candidate got more than 95 percent of them.

Initial inquiries, notably in Ghazni, Paktika and Kandahar provinces “found clear and convincing evidence of fraud in a number of polling stations in each province investigated,” the complaints commission said in the order, posted on its Web site. It said the condition of ballot papers and boxes, and polling officials’ documents, showed that many ballots were illegally cast or “were not legally counted.”

The polling places where fraud was apparent had recorded votes “far in excess of what could be expected based on credible observer reports of low voter turnout,” the order said.

Agents Present

The recount of suspect votes will take place with independent election observers, candidates’ agents and investigators of the complaints commission watching, the order said. It will permit further investigation of the ballots, which may then be excluded from the vote count, the commission said.

The order was signed by the complaints commission’s chairman, Grant Kippen, a Canadian elections specialist appointed by the United Nations to help ensure a credible vote result. The chief UN official in Afghanistan, Special Representative Kai Eide, urged election authorities to exclude from the vote count “results from ballot boxes where there is evidence of irregularities.”

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 8, 2009 09:07 EDT