Concerned about widespread allegations of election fraud in Afghanistan, the Obama administration has told President Hamid Karzai not to declare himself the winner of last month’s presidential elections despite an announcement from the country's election commission that Karzai had sailed past the 50 per cent vote mark essential to avoid a runoff. This message was conveyed to Karzai by Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said on Tuesday the Obama administration’s “message had been consistent throughout that the results of these elections need to be credible and need to reflect the will of the Afghan people”.
Analysts say US support for Karzai despite the accusations of a rigged election could undermine the support for the US military presence in the country. Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow for South Asia at the Heritage Foundation, said a Karzai victory “amidst unresolved allegations of vote tampering would leave his new government on shaky ground and damage the credibility of the coalition forces, which would be perceived as supporting a sham election”.
Perhaps mindful of this scenario, Kelly advocated the need for "a rigorous vetting of all of these allegations of fraud", saying a legitimate electoral process is "vital to any kind of partnership that we would have with the government going forward”.
However, when asked whether Karzai's government is legitimate, Kelly replied: "We work with President Karzai every day. It can be a matter of days, weeks or months to sort out all of these allegations.”
A Western election observer, speaking to The Tribune on the condition of anonymity, said fraudulent ballots were rampant in the August 20 vote. "In some areas the number of 'females' who turned out to vote were way higher than the number of registered female voters," the observer said. On Tuesday, a United Nations-backed commission said it found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud” at several polling stations and ordered a partial recount.
The elections have frayed relations between the US and Karzai. In the days before the vote, Eikenberry made it a point to appear at press conferences of Karzai's top challengers -- Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani. And soon after the vote, US special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke was involved in a heated meeting with Karzai in which he challenged the Afghan leader over allegations of election fraud and insisted on a
runoff. Karzai reportedly reacted angrily to Holbrooke’s criticism.
Abdullah, who the Independent Election Commission said was in second place with 28.3 per cent of the vote, has alleged widespread fraud. The IEC has quarantined 600 polling stations for further investigation. Kelly, however, urged all the candidates to show patience and said the US would not “pronounce our analysis of the election until the whole process has played out”.
“We’re seeing the first phase of it drawing to a conclusion, the counting process,” Kelly said, adding, “The next phase is just as, if not more, important, and that’s dealing with these complaints of fraud.”
Curtis said violent protests by Abdullah’s supporters in the event Karzai is declared the victor could take on ethnic overtones and prove devastating to the development of democracy in the war-torn country. “Such chaos and confusion would also sap support for the Afghanistan mission here in the US, where a recent poll shows 51 per cent of Americans do not believe the war is worth fighting,” she said.
