Karzai given tainted victory

Times:

Hamid Karzai was handed a second term as President of Afghanistan today when the election run-off was cancelled after his main rival withdrew from the race.

Dr Abdullah Abdullah quit yesterday in protest at the Government’s failure to combat election fraud. The Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) responded today, under diplomatic pressure from the West, by calling off the vote scheduled for Saturday.

Daoud Ali Najafi, the IEC chief officer, gave no details to explain the legal process expected to usher Mr Karzai back into power, but Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, was in Kabul to negotiate a possible power-sharing deal between Mr Abdullah and Mr Karzai.

...

The NY Times story focuses on the inevitability of Karzai's "victory." It is clearly a tainted victory which will keep his legitimacy in question. I think Abdullah has created a dilemma for Karzai, the US and the UN by withdrawing. For the time being it looks like all of them intend to muddle along.

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