With no opposition candidate, Hamid Karzai’s path to re-election was pretty easy:
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan officials on Monday canceled plans for a runoff presidential vote, declaring President Hamid Karzai the winner after the withdrawal on Sunday of his last remaining challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.
The announcement capped a fraught election widely depicted as deeply flawed by corruption and voting irregularities..
Azizullah Ludin, the chairman of Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission, said the Constitution did not require a runoff and the second-round vote had been canceled after Mr. Abdullah’s announcement that he was dropping out of the race.
Mr. Karzai had earlier demanded that the runoff take place as scheduled on Saturday.
Listing the commission’s reasons for canceling the vote, Mr. Ludin said the electoral body wanted to spare Afghans the high costs and security risks of a fresh round of balloting. The concerns reflected the difficulties of holding an election amid a growing Taliban insurgency.
Mr. Karzai and the Independent Election Commission had been under intense pressure from Afghanistan’s international backers, including the United States, to cancel the second round because of security perils and worries about a potential repetition of the vote-rigging that marred the first round. At a news conference, Mr. Ludin said Mr. Karzai had won the majority of votes in the first round “and was the only candidate in the second round.”
Accordingly, Mr. Ludin said, Mr. Karzai was “declared the elected president of Afghanistan.”
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.”
And ignore that authoritarian behind the curtain.
November 2nd, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Is this what Obama wants?
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Lots of media outlets are debating about this, saying that these election results could lead to a more unstable government, and/or lead to problems for the Obama administration. I know that Obama formally congratulated Karzai, but it will be interesting to see where the relationship goes from here. http://www.newsy.com/videos/karzai_s_triumph_puts_u_s_on_the_spot