Afghan Election: Legitimacy Compromised by Flawed Process
Check out Dr. Evelyn Farkas’ first-hand account of the recent Presidential elections in Afghanistan from Foreign Policy. As an election observer, she describes exactly how blatant fraud destroyed the legitimacy of the election and what that means for American strategy in the region:
By now, everyone knows the outcome of August’s vote: a competently administered election marred by blatant fraud, followed by an adjudication process that threw out tainted ballots. The result saw front-runner and incumbent, President Hamid Karzai, sink to less than 50 percent of the vote, thereby triggering an upcoming runoff election — one that everyone hoped would redeem, if only partially, the legitimacy of the election process in Afghan eyes. But yesterday, Karzai’s opponent Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the runoff, saying he couldn’t participate in another flawed vote. Now, the second ballot is off altogether. Karzai is back for another term, period.
The elections in Afghanistan mattered, and getting them wrong has had a serious impact. For its policy in Afghanistan to be effective, the United States cannot be seen as condoning — or worse, complicit in — a government that is only interested in enriching its members, rather than providing services and improving economic, health, and educational prospects for its citizens. Many in Afghanistan blame the United States for having sat by and watched while the central government skimmed off international funds.
The runoff was an acknowledgment of how badly the United States and its allies need to consolidate Afghan public opinion in favor of a legitimate government and, by extension, NATO troops. Abdullah’s withdrawal is a reality check. If the international community is to prevent the same fraud, intimidation, and apathy from marring upcoming parliamentary and local elections — the kind that matter most, in the everyday sense to Afghans — there is much work to be done.”
Farkas concludes:
Almost everything about the Afghan presidential election has been a mess, right down to the final outcome, today, of granting Hamid Karzai another term. There’s only one silver lining: The mess should be a wake-up call to the international community about how rotten the Afghan political system has become. If we’re lucky, it may just galvanize the United Nations, NATO, and all of the governments to plan better for the next round of voting. It would be the only positive outcome of this dreadful election.”
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