KABUL - It’s been a privilege to be part of this process and to stand here with you today. The Afghan people have been through many difficult months now from when the election process started and up until the day where we are today.

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And I admire the Afghan people for the fact that they participated so eagerly in the election process and engaged in the way they did and I admire their patience in the last couple of months in waiting for the results of these elections.

For me throughout these all months, there has been one consideration that has been the centre of all my attention and my work and that has been the respect for the Afghan constitution, the legal frameworks and institutions that have been put in place to help move the election process forward.

And I believe that it was important not to look to the left, not to look to the right, but to follow that road stubbornly.

And when we stand here today I think we can safely say that those institutions that have been the key institutions in this period – they have functioned the way they should.

And in a country in conflict and a country which is a young democracy it is a particular importance that institutions that underpin that democracy work and work solidly.

They have led us to where we stand today with a declaration of a run-off to take place in the next couple of weeks.

I am proud, I must say, as the UN Special Representative, I am proud of the work done by the institutions that are UN institutions and UN-backed institutions. I’m thinking of UNDP who has provided assistance to the IEC and I’m also talking about the ECC whose work I am proud of.

And I look forward to a dignified campaign over the next two weeks between the two candidates and a fair and the end result to this long election process.

And then when that result has been reached we must get together in our partnership – the international community and the Afghan Government – and we must say to ourselves all of us “we can do better and we must do better” – the international community as well as the Afghan Government. And the Afghan people deserve that.