WASHINGTON (PAN): US President Barack Obama had a Situation Room meeting through a secure video conference with his ambassador to
They discussed different preparations that are being made with the IEC (Independent Election Commission) to ensure that the election is run in a way that people can be confident about its outcome, the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters at his daily news conference.
It was primarily focused on the current situation there, the preparations that are being made to ensure a fair election, what has to be done to make sure that what caused votes to be thrown out before are not, and then also, a longer -- just larger and longer discussion about the future of -- overall of governance and of having a partner in Afghanistan, he said.
Obviously part of the discussion this morning, in reviewing the current political situation was to talk about the preparations that the Afghans are making to conduct the second election on November 7th, Gibbs said when asked about the details of the meeting that lasted for more than half an hour.
They discussed specifically, the process and the rule of law worked. The ECC (Electoral Complaint Commission) and the IEC identified votes that shouldn't be counted, those votes were thrown out, and we're at that point now, he said.
Meanwhile Gibbs said there is no time line to announce the new Af-Pak strategy, which is currently being discussed threadbare by Obama who has held more than 16 hours of situation room meetings in the last few weeks.
The President, as you know, was in the Situation Room today for about an hour over video teleconference with Ambassador Karl Eikenberry from Kabul, discussing the current political situation in Afghanistan as part of the review and assessment process, Gibbs said.
The President will make a decision in the next few weeks, in the coming weeks, as I have said. I don't know when that decision will be. It could be before the run-off. It might be after the run-off on -- as planned on November 7th, he said.
Referring to the Obama-Eikenberry meet, Gibbs said there are questions that have to be addressed in the lead-up to November 7 polls to ensure fraud doesn't happen, which will ensure that whoever is victorious.
Issues of governance, of development, of all of those things are not simply going to be decided on one -- through one act on November 7. This is an ongoing and long process that the President and his team are addressing, he noted.
Without going into specifics, Gibbs said they also discussed what steps needs to be taken to make sure that the mistakes of the August 20 elections are not repeated and there is free and fair election this time.
We believe the Afghan people are going to choose their leader, and we will work with whomever that is to ensure a strengthened partnership, that we're addressing the issues on the civilian capacity side, on development, and ensuring that as we work in Afghanistan to improve the security situation and the development situation, that there are comparable gains made in training by an Afghan national security force that can ultimately provide the type of protection and the government that's needed to secure our country in the long run, he said.
