And The Winner Is...

by: Richard Allen Smith

Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 10:02:33 AM EST


Karzai, by default:

Afghanistan's Election Commission has declared President Hamid Karzai the winner of the country's disputed election after canceling a second round of voting.

The commission chief Azizullah Ludin said Monday President Karzai would keep his post because he was the winner of the first round of voting in August, and the only candidate in the second round which had been scheduled for November 7.

Mr. Karzai's challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew from the race Sunday because of concerns about widespread fraud, which marred the August vote.

What a clusterfuck.  Corrupt Karzai wins through fraud and gets another term as the head of a weak national government that receives little faith from the Afghan population. This should make counterinsurgency operations interesting.

And by the way, this is only made worse by the U.S. statement on the matter:

Officials from the United States and United Nations welcomed the decision and congratulated Mr. Karzai.

"We congratulate President Karzai on his victory in this historic election," said a statement from the United States Embassy in Kabul, "and look forward to working with him, his new administration, the Afghan people and our partners in the international community to support Afghanistan's progress towards institutional reforms, security and prosperity."

Maybe something like "While we still have concerns about the fairness of the Afghan election process, we look forward to working with the government and people of Afghanistan to ensure a stronger and more resilient democracy" would have been more appropriate. I'm not a P.R. guy so I'm sure someone else could come up with something better. Either way, giving Karzai an attaboy for stealing the election probably wasn't the way to go.

Richard Allen Smith :: And The Winner Is...
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