国际英语新闻：U.S. committed to support Afghanistan's fair election: Clinton

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton on Tuesday pledged American support for Afghanistan's effort in realizing fair elections.

    "We remain committed to partnering with the Afghan people and their government on our shared objectives of strengthening good governance, tackling corruption, increasing economic opportunities and improving security for all Afghans," Clinton said in a statement, welcoming Afghan President Hamid Karzai's agreement to accept the second round of elections.

    Clinton spoke highly of the Afghan people's enthusiasm on national elections, saying that "the bravery, patience and resilience of the Afghan people has been on display since election day."

    Clinton's remarks echoed President Barack Obama's written statement issued earlier in the day, which called Karzai's agreement on run-off an important step to ensure the future Afghan government could reflect the will of people.

    The United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC)submitted on Monday its fraud investigation finding to Afghan electoral body, saying that votes from 210 polling stations in the Afghan elections were invalid.

    Afghanistan held its second presidential elections in mid-August. However, final result has yet to be announced by the election body due to widespread fraud allegation leveled by Karzai's rival Abdullah Abdullah, who secured 28 percent of the more than 5.5 million votes against Karzai who bagged over 54 percent in the preliminary results.

    The runoff in Afghanistan's presidential election is due to be held on Nov. 7.