Topical question asked in the House of Commons, by Ian McCartney (Labour). It was answered by David Miliband (Labour) on Tuesday, 20 October 2009 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Topical Questions

Answer: This afternoon, President Karzai has announced that in the light of the findings of the electoral complaints commission, he will embrace a second round run-off of the presidential elections in Afghanistan. We welcome that. Both he and Dr. Abdullah have been statesmanlike in accepting the prolonged electoral process and have secured support from across the country. Both have a major responsibility to ensure that the next stages are a credit to Afghanistan. The independent election commission is expected to make an announcement this afternoon on the details of the first round result, once it has collated the orders of the electoral complaints commission to exclude flawed ballots and include some quarantined ballots. The Afghan people and candidates have shown patience and resilience throughout this process and the UK will continue to support them as they bring it to a conclusion. I also wish to place on record the thanks of the whole House not just to the UN Secretary-General's special representative, Kai Eide, for the unstinting work that he has done on this election, but to Senator John Kerry for his work over the past few days. I spoke to him on Saturday and Sunday, and he has made a signal contribution to the resolution of the process.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 497 c770-1; 293926
Session: 2008-09
Oral question type: Lead
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Related items: Topical Questions
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Proceeding contributions
House of Commons; Topical Questions
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Proceeding contributions
House of Commons
Subjects: Departmental responsibilities Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Link: View this Topical question on www.publications.parliament.uk