"Rigorous vetting" needed of allegations of fraud in Afghan presidential polls-US.

WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (KUNA) -- A "rigorous vetting" is needed of allegations of fraud in the Afghan presidential elections, US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said on Tuesday, but US officials will not offer an analysis of the election, held last month, until the entire process has played out. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in Afghanistan has announced preliminary results accounting for 92.6 of the polling stations, and that it is quarantining about 600 polling stations for further investigation, Kelly noted during a department briefing. The Election Complaints Commission in Afghanistan has called on the IEC to act on allegations of "clear and convincing evidence of fraud" at a number of polling places, Kelly said. The election results, in which incumbent President Hamid Karzai has been leading his main opponent, former Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, "need to be credible and need to reflect the will of the Afghan people, Kelly said. " ... A legitimate electoral process is vital to us and vital to any kind of partnership that we would have with the government going forward." The next phase in the Afghan election process is dealing with complaints of fraud, Kelly said. "So we are calling on all the candidates, we are calling on all the different actors out there, political institutions, to show patience," he said. US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry on Monday gave US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "an update of where we are in this very complicated process," Kelly said, referring to the elections in Afghanistan. It is very important that the elections in Afghanistan are seen as legitimate in the eyes of the Afghan people and the international community, Kelly said. But it could take months to sort out the fraud allegations, he added. (end) rm.bs KUNA 082129 Sep 09NNNN 

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