US President’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke has urged the critics of the August 20 Afghan presidential election “not to jump to conclusions”. The American diplomat stated this in an interview with BBC television channel.

“Not all of the people in Afghanistan were able to vote, and as I've said many times before this election, there are imperfect elections throughout the west as well, and holding elections under these conditions is a very brave thing to do so let’s see what happens before jumping to conclusions,” Holbrooke said. At the same time he ruled out a re-run of the August 20 presidential polls.

However, British Foreign Minister David Miliband said Afghan elections could not be called “free and fair”. “The country is still in a state of war and the Afghan elections could not be called free and fair,” the British Foreign Secretary said.

Miliband also made it clear London would support for a coalition government. Despite the nature of the election, staged under a violent backdrop, Miliband said he felt it was still possible to have a final result that the people of Afghanistan can have confidence in. According to the British Foreign Ministry, it takes a long time to count ballot papers shows that the members of the election commission are serious and there were serious violations.

Notably, on the 10th of September, the Election Commission dismissed the results of over 80 polling stations.

The latest reports released by independent election commission say incumbent president Hamid Karzai has won 54% votes and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah – 28%.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Minister of another NATO member country, Estonia Urmas Paet has not excluded the possibility of holding talks with the Taliban. IA REGNUM news agency says such talks could be possible after creation of preconditions by the Taliban, including ending its military activity in Afghanistan, which Urmas Paet described as “terrorist” territory.