Afghanistan's election commission has ordered a runoff election for 7th November after a fraud investigation dropped President Hamid Karzai's votes below 50 per cent of the total. The new election date was announced after a UN-backed Afghan complaints commission confirmed staggering levels of fraud in the August 20 presidential vote, declaring more than one million ballots suspect. Mr. Karzai accepted the fraud panel finding in a press conference and endorsed a runoff election. The chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, said the commission did not want to leave the people of Afghanistan in uncertainty any longer. Afghan electoral law says a runoff is needed if no candidate gets above 50 percent of the total. Mr. Karzai said, this is not the right time to discuss investigations, but to move forward to stability and national unity.