Afghanistan vote - Success

[km gresham]

Afghan Opposition Candidate Backs Off Boycott
Monday, October 11, 2004

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai's (search) main challenger Monday backed off a boycott of Afghanistan's landmark election over allegations of fraud, saying he would accept the formation of an independent commission to look into any irregularities in the vote.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (search), the first foreign leader to visit since Saturday's election, all but declared Karzai the winner before a single ballot was counted.

The announcement by ethnic Tajik candidate Yunus Qanooni (search) that he would accept the formation of the election commission followed similar statements Sunday by Massooda Jalal, the only female presidential hopeful, and ethnic Hazara candidate Mohammed Mohaqeq.

"I don't want to be against the election and I appreciate the good will of the people of Afghanistan," Qanooni said. "I want to prove to the people of Afghanistan that the national interest is my highest interest."

He said he made his decision after a meeting with U.N. representative Jean Arnault and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

Abdul Satar Sirat, a minor Uzbek candidate who rallied the others to support the boycott, also appeared to back down. His spokesman, Ramatullah Jalili, also said Sirat would respect the decision of an independent electoral commission.

[km gresham]

Oh, Lordy! :rolleyes: They're in for it now. Think of all the attack ads with that many candidates! :eek: smile.gif

[alteran]

Lbj5 two days ago:

"Sixteen of the eighteen candidates have declared the election a fraud, have withdrawn, and will refuse to acknowledge it.
It's too bad. Afghanistan has come such a long way in only a few years. It would have been great if they acheived a true representative democracy.
In the debates, Bush and Cheney cited the election in Afghanistan as a crowning acheivement. I wonder if they will continue to politicize it, or will they admit the failure?"

Lbj5? Comment?

[martin schulz]

Originally posted by km gresham:
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (search), the first foreign leader to visit since Saturday's election, all but declared Karzai the winner before a single ballot was counted.Ohh yes - what a stupid move. I guess we all want those elections in Afghanistan to be a sucess, but I don't know if beforehand congratulations to Karzai or diplomatic pressure on the opponents are the right tools to persuade the Afghan people that western democracy is a good thing. :(

[George.]

I hope it ends up a success, but it is WAY too early to declare it. Afghanistan does not have the attention span of the MTV generation. It will take a few weeks just for the vote to be tallied and all the major and minor leaders to assimilate the results and what they mean for their own interests. Then they will jostle, form coallitions, break alliances, trade horses and threats, and something will emerge, which may or may not be a viable central government under the election winner.

That, of course, assuming they take the election seriously at all, and don't view it as a mere window-dressing exercise to appease the foreign powers. In that case Karzai goes back to being mayor of Kabul, and the warlords go back to their poppies.

[km gresham]

We're still waiting for the UN to declare our democracy a success! We've been at it for such a short time, it's hard to tell. ;) smile.gif

[LeeG]

is the UN good!? ;) :D
or is it bad :( :cool:

are you afraid of it :rolleyes:

[Gary Lee]

KABUL, Afghanistan - A U.N. helicopter hauling ballots from remote villages in northeastern Afghanistan (news - web sites) crash-landed in a snowy field Tuesday. Nobody was injured and no ballots were lost, but officials said the accident would delay vote counting from rugged Badakhshan province.

.

[George.]

Originally posted by km gresham:
We're still waiting for the UN to declare our democracy a success! We've been at it for such a short time, it's hard to tell. ;) smile.gif Are you really? I didn't even know they were asked to evaluate it. :rolleyes:

Did you know the UN was basically created and led by the US? Or did you flunk history in high school?

[alteran]

I see Lbj5 is back. Are you ready to comment now lbj5?

[ljb5]

Originally posted by alteran:
I see Lbj5 is back. Are you ready to comment now lbj5?Sorry, Al -- I didn't see this until just now.

It's still too early to declare the vote a success. The candidates have not said that they accepted the results. They said that they will accept the investigation.


...accept the formation of an independent commission to look into any irregularities in the vote.I believe that the legitimacy of the vote is more important than the perception of legitimacy.

I hope this is resolved peacefully and legitimately. Any election that requires this much wrangling afterwards isn't well-run.

After Florida in 2000, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the election was flawed - they differed only in whether a remedy was possible.

[ 10-12-2004, 02:37 PM: Message edited by: ljb5 ]

[km gresham]

It won't be a success until ljb says it is! That will be after our election and only if Kerry wins. If Bush wins re-election the Afghanistan election will NEVER be a success. ;) smile.gif

[ 10-12-2004, 02:37 PM: Message edited by: km gresham ]

[ljb5]

Originally posted by km gresham:
It won't be a success until ljb says it is! Sorry, Karen, I'm not on the independent commission cited in the article you posted. (you did read the article, didn't you?)

Let's just let them do their job. This has been politicized enough already.

[Jim H]

WWJCD?