KABUL: It’s hard to find Afghans with much enthusiasm for a second round presidential election run-off - or even for the drawn-out process of investigation into widespread allegations of electoral fraud.

Even supporters of the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, seem sceptical at best. “Many people are poor here,” said Gul Ahmad, 53, a bus driver. “A second round would cost a lot of money that should be spent on other things.

“I voted for Dr Abdullah but we should accept the election result now. Everybody should compromise in the interests of the nation.”

Afghans know that elections here bring violence. They can also divide the country’s main ethnic groups against each other.

Taliban intimidation, together with attacks on polling stations, meant that in much of Afghanistan it took real courage to vote last month. Few want to go through it all again.

Human rights activist Ozala Ashraf Nemat said she, too, was against a second round. “Why would a second round be any different from the first?” she said. “Why would it be more free or more fair?

The result of that, she added, could be even less credible than that of the first round.