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Afghanistan Poll Chaos as Abdullah Quits Run-Off
President Karzai's opponent in Saturday's presidential election run-off pulled out of the race today in protest over the Afghanistan Government's refusal to meet his demands to tackle the massive fraud that tainted the first round in August.
Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah speaks during a gathering with his supporters in Kabul November 1, 2009. Abdullah quit an election run-off on Sunday after accusing the government of not meeting his demands for a fair vote, but said he was not calling for a boycott. (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood)
Abdullah Abdullah stopped short of calling for his supporters to boycott the
vote and urged them not to take to the streets in protest, leaving a window
open for a power-sharing deal to be brokered by the international community.
"In protest against the illegal actions of the Government and the electoral commission, I will not participate in the run-off of the second round of the presidential election," Dr Abdullah told a gathering of several hundred supporters in a huge tent in Kabul.
"It hasn't been easy for me to make this decision," he said, choking back tears before the audience of tribal elders and former MujahidIn leaders, mainly from the Tajik-dominated north of Afghanistan.
Asked later if he was asking his supporters to boycott the vote, Dr Abdullah said: "I have not made that call."
His campaign team had threatened to boycott the run-off after Mr Karzai refused to meet several "minimum conditions" to prevent fraud, including dismissing the election chief and suspending three ministers, by a deadline of yesterday.
A total boycott would have challenged the legitimacy of the entire process, which the United States and its allies are desperately hoping will produce a credible government with which they can work to defeat the Taleban.
Dr Abdullah, the former Foreign Minister has come under massive international pressure in the past few days to withdraw gracefully - without challenging the legitimacy of the election - in exchange for a power-sharing deal with President Karzai.
Kai Eide, the UN chief in Afghanistan, and Karl Eikenberry, the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, almost brokered a deal this morning, whereby the two men would have divided up ministries and provincial governorships, Western diplomats told The Times.
"They were so close to a deal, but at the last minute something happened," said one diplomat. "As an olive branch to the internationals, Abdullah didn't boycott."
At a news conference after his speech, Dr Abdullah admitted meeting Mr Karzai on Wednesday, but denied having struck a deal with the President. "This is my decision. This is not been made in exchange for anything with anybody," he said.
He conceded, however, that the door was still open for negotiations. "In Afghanistan, even the people who have fought one another, they sit together and they talk," he said.
Mr Karzai's campaign team said that the run-off would go ahead as planned on Saturday with only one candidate.
"We believe that the elections have to go on, the process has to complete itself, the people of Afghanistan have to be given the right to vote," said Wahid Omar, a spokesman for the President.
Mr Karzai needs a second round because the constitution says that any President must have more than 50 per cent of the vote, and he won only 48.3 per cent in the first round after a million of his votes were disqualified for being fraudulent.
The constitution also says that a candidate can withdraw from the second round, but does not specify what should happen thereafter.
Azizullah Ludin, the head of the Independent Election Commission, said that he would have to confer with constitutional lawyers before deciding whether the run-off would proceed without Dr Abdullah.
Diplomats say that a run-off with one candidate is highly unlikely given the huge security threat from the Taleban, which staged multiple attacks during the first round and has vowed to disrupt the run-off as well.
They say it is more likely that the Supreme Court will be asked to make a ruling on the issue.
The court would also have to consider whether there should now be a run-off between President Karzai and Ramazan Bashadorst, a charismatic anti-corruption campaigner who surprised everyone by coming third in the first round.
Mr Bashadorst told The Times that he would not take part in a run-off with Mr Karzai on the ground that both the President and Dr Abdullah should have been disqualified after the first round.
The UN-backed investigation that disqualified one million of Mr Karzai's votes, also threw out about 300,000 of Dr Abdullah's.
"We should create a Nobel prize for election fraud, and give it to Mr Karzai as king and Dr Abdullah as queen," said Mr Bashadorst.
"Now Mr Karzai would like to run alone, because he will win, but that will be like the Communist period in the Soviet Union . . . I'm not for violence, but I don't know what will be the reaction of my voters. It is impossible to control each one."
16 Comments so far
Show AllInstead of spending all that money on an election farce, just let the Supreme Court declare Karzi the winner just like they did for Bush.
So this is the back story that was unfolding as Hillary Clinton was making her ridiculous comments a few days ago. Yes, sure, holding an election is completely acceptable if the only viable opposition candidate drops out! Hillary Clinton is further diminishing the stature of the position of Secretary of State--which is not easy to do after what this country has done over the past decade.
So, as the political and military situation in Afghanistan spins out of control, remember that there is always opportunity in chaos. Unfortunately, those best positioned to take advantage of that chaos are those most capable of violent acts and deception.
Watch the secret dealing intensify, and the long-suffering Afghani public be left out in the cold again.
So the US government is now setting up elections for its puppets where there are no opponents and the US is declaring such elections to be "legitimate." So that's what Bush meant when he spoke about spreading "democracy" around the world. Mr. Hope-a-Dope (as in I hope for dopes who are naive enough to believe in me) apparently endorsed that plan and is running with it. Orwell would be impressed, as would Machiavelli, by the sheer audacity (the audacity of hope?) of the plan.
Here's the takeaway: When presented with certain defeat by fair means or foul, Gangsters make a deal; People committed to the defeat of their Enemy, don't. The deal is called "Power Sharing", Tammany used to do it all the time, "Yes, you can hurt me and yes I can crush you and yes you can make me bleed and weaken me, here's what you get..." It didn't make them not be gangsters, its "Bizness" dividing the pie, getting your piece...in this case, Heroin, pipeline profits, whatever, its the pie...and the Boss of Bosses takes his cut...I wonder who that could be...
Its what Gangsters do. Gangsters will do their mothers over "Bizness". Can't get past it till you see it. Then you spread it around...everywhere you go...the clerk at Walgreens or Target any where that working people meet each other...they're all nothing but Gangsters and they cannot stand against us...they are but few and we cast them out for we are Legion...and we are born to live free and this is not Freedom....is it...
Peace.
COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS OF CD POSTERS
1) Afghanistan was in the midst of a civil war when Bush and his trigger pullers attacked.
Patently not true after 25 years of war and civil war the Taliban had defeated all the contenders for power.
( Including Tajik Warlord Abdullah responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in his long term shelling of Kabul.)
The Taliban were cooperating with the USA and UN ( witness Taliban in Crawford and 90% reduction in opium production)and were recognized officially by Saudi Arabia and on their way to more nations officially accepting Ambassadors.
The USA reconstituted the Northern Warlords and together they overthrew the Taliban which had established a Shria form of law and order. This after the Taliban failed to sign a pipeline contract, prompting the famous but disputed Calco (sp.) threat to the Taliban you may have a carpet of Gold or a carpet of Bombs.
Rearming the Tajiks ( see if Abdullah receives control of the Afghan military) is one of the worse policies the USA is following. Creating a balance of power between the majority Pastuns, who have always ruled the nation of Afghanistan and a Warlord led minority can only lead to the worse kind of civil war after the USA withdrawal.
2) The USA is now battling the Taliban.
Only 10% of the forces against the invaders are Taliban( including the possibly 100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan), 90% are non Taliban freedom fighters.
3) Poppy growing is by International Law Illegal
No Heroin production is Illegal. Heroin production can easily be halted by interdicting the Chemical Tankers entering the Kyber pass in Tandem with USA convoys.
4) Afghanistan has always been violent, chaotic and stone age.
No when I was there in the early 70's it was orderly, peaceful and had a refined culture ( Albeit some say this was the modern golden years of Afghanistan). It has been greatly influenced by Persian, Buddhist,Greek and Aryan cultures(thus the Pashtuns are more fair than brown skinned). It was a main junction for all the Asian trading.Literally tons of, unsurpassed in beauty, golden jewlery was being excavated by archeologists in the north before the civil wars. The paintings above the Buddhas in Bamayin were also unsurpassed in world art. The ancient irrigation systems were miraculous. It was the Central Asian banking center during my visit.
5) Not well known is that the socialist government in power when the USA first started arming Warlords, Landlords and Foundalmentalists in the mid seventies, was instituting gender and agrarian reforms.
Glenn Ford, I'm not sure why you submitted your comment in this thread, because it does not seem to me that the posters here are in disagreement with your assertions.
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True. It's nice to see it laid out all orderly, though.
By any amount of means this puppet could be nothing but a weak leader in his country. He has been a snitch taking orders from the C.I.A. for over twenty-five years. He has never had a mind of his own. bUT WHAT THE HELL? oUR GANG OF CORRUPT SO CALLED LEADERS ARE WEAK ALSO. lOOK AT bUSH, THE PIMP FROM tEXAS. lOOK AT GATOR MOUTH cHENEY, NO ONE KNOWS WHERE THAT SCUM IS FROM.Put impeachment back on the table Miss tuna queen of California.
This is the first time I learned that 300,000 votes for Mr. Abdullah were thrown out. Admittedly that is less than the one million for Mr. Karzai but it suggests that Mr. Abdullah's supporters were committing voting fraud too. Now there is talk of "power sharing" of these two politicians. Considering the fact, as I do, that both sharers committed voting fraud that does make sense, does it not?
So, the US gets what it wants after all, a puppet whose strings they can pull while the CIA monopolizes the opium trade via his brother. How very cozy!
A million fraudulent votes, that's outrageous !
The International Community must protest this, must televise this charade 24/7 until the Mullah's admit that they have held a farce of an election, we must never rest until Democracy is brought to Iran and the people that have...
what ?
Afghanistan ?
Oh, uh, well there's bound to be a few clerical errors in a large country like Afghanistan, I'm sure Karzai will be elected in a runoff and the United States will have a partner who is committed to Democracy and free enterprise and the people that have expressed their desire to rebuild the country with the strong partnership of America will continue to....
I think Dr. Abdullah pulled out of the election because he realized that Karzi could cheat better than him as Dr. Abdullah had only 300,000 fraudulent votes while Karzi had a million. Our military people are putting their lives on the line for these two corrupt, drug dealing, U.S. puppets? What a travesty!
Afghan election commission declares Hamid Karzai winner of presidential election. More soon ...
When is the election? Will there be another recount?
I wonder when the penny will drop with the US people that their empire is eating its own tail.
They just spent hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of their own lives to remove in Iraq a CIA appointed dictator, who they propped up, made excuses for, and supplied arms to for years. They then used deceit about Kuwait, lies about WMD and terror links, to justify occupation and the killing of over a million Iraqis. Finally the only thing they found to accuse Saddam Hussein of, try him in a kangaroo court, and hang him ignobly for, was killing his own people in large numbers (something America did in far greater numbers and just as cruelly). In Nouri Maliki they now have a new puppet but the killing goes on. The Iraqis never wanted or needed the Americans there. They were no threat to America.
In Afghanistan, the CIA set up Al Qaeda to support the Mujahedeen, and the Taleban through Pakistan to defeat a relatively stable socialist government in Kabul itself propped up by a Soviet occupation. Now Karsai, a puppet with “made in the USA” tattooed on his ass and “property of the CIA” on his back is not even a credible figure to Afghans as he lords it along with a bunch of corrupt cronies and drug dealing war lords under American occupation where the US forces do the killing of his people for him in large numbers.
Even the lies of freedom, democracy, nation building and development now lie bare and dismembered in the gutters of Kabul yet dumb Americans still support their troupes preparing to sacrifice yet another lot on the lust and call of their own war lords Petraeus and McChrystal , sending them out to do the killing of Afghans for the delusion of power and to die, for what?
How can Obama even pretend this is a righteous war? There is no Al Qaeda of importance other than the delusion fostered by the CIA, the Taleban are only strengthened by the hatred of American military occupation and even if Bin Laden had anything to do with 9-11, which is wearing pretty thin as a story, he has either been dead for many years now or is on a dialysis machine complements of the CIA in Pakistan. The Afghans don’t want or need Americans there. They are no threat to America.
And now they start in Pakistan….. the churning goes on. The same dumb grunts take them down and prop them up. the killing never stops. What day is it today? Orwellian or Kafkesque?
Perhaps the billions and billions being spent in these stupid wars and how much is being siphoned off to war lords and other leaders, might be better used to finance travel and resettlement of any Afghan person who wants to leave the horrible conditions in which they live and move elsewhere to any place that will take them. One condition would be to burn their hideous black chadors - covering ear lobes with scarves would be optional so as not to excite Muslim men too much.