Washington, Tuesday 20 October 2009: As a UN-backed panel threw out nearly a third of Hamid Karzai’s votes from the August Presidential polls, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Afghan President will “set the stage” for resolving the political crisis by announcing his intentions on Tuesday.

Ms. Clinton also hoped that the crisis in the war-torn country would be resolved soon.

“He is going to announce his intentions. I am going to let him do that, but I am encouraged at the direction the situation is moving,” Ms. Clinton told reporters at the State Department after meeting with Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki.

She was responding to questions about the political crisis in Afghanistan in the wake of a U.N.-backed panel deciding to cut Mr. Karzai’s share of the vote to 48 per cent, below the threshold for an outright win.

“I am very hopeful that we will see a resolution in line with the constitutional order in the next several days,” Ms. Clinton said.

“But I don’t want to pre-empt in any way President Karzai’s statement, which will set the stage for how we go forward in the next stage of this,” she said, when asked whether Mr. Karzai has decided to accept the findings of a U.N.-backed fraud.
(Agency)