Karzai wins as Afghan run-off cancelled
Afghan President Hamid Karzai was declared the victor of the war-torn country's presidential election as the election commission cancelled a run-off vote after his opponent withdrew.
Independent Election Commission chairman Azizullah Lodin declared Karzai the victor during a news conference in Kabul on Monday.
That's a bit anticlimactic when you consider that Lodin, who was appointed by Karzai, had declared him to be the winner over a week ago shortly after the run-off was announced. But back to our exciting announcement:
[UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon] met with Abdullah and Karzai on Monday in Kabul. His visit to Afghanistan was meant to assure the Afghan people "of the continuing support of the United Nations toward the development of the country," the UN said in a statement. But analysts said the UN chief's visit was indicative of the mounting pressure by the international community for a quick resolution to the electoral turmoil in Afghanistan.
Pressure by the international community? Sure, if by international community you mean the people who support the continued occupation of Afghanistan and are desperate to put this mess behind them so they can convince everyone else to commit more troops.
The first round of this election — the one on which Karzai's supposed victory is based — saw a turnout of only 33% and massive fraud. Turnout for the run-off was expected to be even lower. Karzai had already refused to consider his opponent's demand to replace some of the officials who were suspected of overseeing the fraud and those officials had already announced their intention to ignore the UN's advice about avoiding a repeat performance of the ghost polls that had contributed to the bogus results. Karzai's opponent didn't have to look very hard to see the writing on the wall.
So Hamid Karzai is pleased to remain as the leader of a government widely regarded as one of the most corrupt in the world. And I imagine his brother is pleased to continue collecting payments from the CIA for running their private army. Eight years into the occupation of Afghanistan, it's still the international community who are supposed to grant legitimacy to the government of that country instead of the people who actually live there and who certainly haven't given Karzai a convincing mandate to govern.
Any honest and realistic depiction of the situation in Afghanistan will begin with the admission that there is no legitimate national government. Anything else will be as fraudulent as this election process.
Thannks for that exciting announcement pogge. Only 19 hours ago Canada's government "continues to support the Afghan-led electoral process," the Foreign Ministry said Sunday after the withdrawal from the runoff race of candidate Abdullah Abdullah.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g8tQ1HFBbM6ibwO_EHxU4yJpN7EA
Canada awaits its next orders. I can't wait.