"The Afghan people will not be satisfied with the electoral process until the work of the ECC is completed, which could take several more weeks," observed Lisa Curtis, senior research fellow at the Asian Studies Centre at the prestigious Heritage Foundation.

Curtis, who has testified before the US Congress several times on South Asian issues, said a Karzai victory amidst unresolved allegations of vote tampering would leave his new government on shaky ground and damage the credibility of coalition forces, which would be perceived as supporting a sham election.

About the prospect of violent demonstrations by Abdullah supporters, Curtis warned such protests could easily take on ethnic overtones and prove devastating to the development of democracy in the war-torn country.

"Such chaos and confusion would also sap support for the Afghanistan mission here in the US, where a recent poll shows 51 percent of Americans do not believe the war is worth fighting," she added.

A run-off election, Curtis said, could bolster Afghans' faith in the democratic process but it would also prolong the period of uncertainty in the country and open the door for more Taliban attacks. 

"Although many Afghans summoned up the courage to vote once in the face of brutal threats and attacks, asking them to do so a second time within such a short period of time would be an uphill task," the expert believed.

Curtis argued: The best thing the international community can do right now to support democracy in the country is to ensure the ECC has enough time to fully and transparently investigate all complaints of voter fraud."

It would be a time-consuming and cumbersome process but it was the only way to bring back confidence in the Afghan electoral process, she concluded.

lkj/mud