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KABUL, Afghanistan (ABC News) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed today to a runoff election against his top challenger after a U.N.-backed audit found that he had failed to win more than 50 percent of votes in the fraud-plagued election.
Flanked by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide, a visibly tired Karzai defused what the U.S. feared would be a crisis if he rejected the Electoral Complaints Commission report. Instead, Karzai declared the runoff legal and constitutional.
A million Karzai votes thrown out
(Guardian) – An independent calculation by an election monitoring group, Democracy International, showed Karzai with 48.3 percent, or about 2.1 million votes, after more than 995,000 of his votes were thrown out for fraud. Voter turnout dropped to 32%.
ECC Decisions with regard to the results of the 20 August 2009 Presidential Elections …
Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission is expected to dispute the findings of a commission responsible for declaring the final results of the presidential vote, according to several officials.
The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission is scheduled to release the final results from August’s presidential election, which has been plagued with allegations of voter fraud, at about 8:30 a.m. ET. According to several accounts, the findings of the five-member investigative panel will force a run-off vote.
“It will be the responsibility of the IEC to take our decisions and make the necessary adjustments to the preliminary results before they can then certify the final results of the presidential election,” said commission head, Canadian Grant Kippen, in a brief written statement sent to the CBC.
Two international officials who have seen the results said enough votes for President Hamid Karzai were thrown out that his totals dropped below the 50 per cent threshold needed to avoid a run-off with top challenger Abdullah Abdullah.
WASHINGTON DC (McClatchy) — As two commissions reviewing allegations of fraud in Afghanistan’s August 20 presidential election haggled in Kabul, a top Obama administration official and a senior Senate Democrat publicly turned up the heat on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to find a credible end to the electoral dispute.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on CNN that President Barack Obama wouldn’t make a decision on his military commanders’ request for as many as 80,000 additional American troops in Afghanistan until the administration is convinced that the country has a credible central government.
“It would be reckless to make a decision on U.S. troop level if, in fact, you haven’t done a thorough analysis of whether, in fact, there’s an Afghan partner ready to fill that space that the U.S. troops would create and become a true partner in governing the Afghan country,” Emanuel said.
Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass. , the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , who’s visiting Afghanistan , told CNN that, “It would be entirely irresponsible for the president of the United States to commit more troops to this country when we don’t even have an election finished.”
Yep US didnt want Karzai elected but the puppet candidates werent up to the job so it was over to get the panel of foreigners to boot out enough votes and make sure the media played up the vote rigging stuff.
Now if that nice Mr. Karzai had leartned to take it a bit better and not to be so mouthy at all those wedding parties bombed it didnt have to be this way. Just look at his first election when he was a darling for evidence of a double standard.
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A Maryland scientist who once worked in varying capacities for the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been arrested for attempted espionage …
One of answers provided by Stewart David Nozette contained information classified as Secret, which concerned capabilities of a prototype overhead collection system. In addition, Nozette allegedly offered to reveal additional classified information that directly concerned nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, and other major weapons systems.
Also on or about Sept. 17, 2009, undercover FBI agents left a second letter in the post office box for Nozette. In the letter, the FBI asked Nozette to answer another list of questions concerning U.S. satellite information. The FBI also left a cash payment of $9,000 in the post office box. Nozette allegedly retrieved the questions and the money from the post office box later that same day.
On or about October 1, 2009, Nozette was filmed on videotape leaving a manila envelope in the post office box. Later that day, FBI agents retrieved the manila envelope left by Nozette and found a second set of answers from him. The answers contained information classified as both Top Secret and Secret that concerned U.S. satellites, early warning systems, means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence information, and major elements of defense strategy.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Israel spies on us more than any other counhtry and even gets caught and forgiven. If any other country were caught even doing half as much we would have bombed them back to the dark ages, invaded and occupied them, installed an “elected” in our special way government that had signed all its resources over to our companies……
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KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Afghanistan’s president is downplaying accusations of widespread fraud in his country’s recent elections, but he’s emphasizing the importance of a runoff for the sake of ensuring peace and stability in his nascent and war-torn democracy.
“There were some mistakes. There were some instances of fraud, but the nation as a whole was clean, and the result was clear. I decided for peace, for stability and for the future of democracy in Afghanistan and for the future of institutional order in Afghanistan to call for a runoff, and I find that in the interest of the Afghan people.”
The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission invalidated nearly one-third of Karzai’s votes because of “clear and convincing evidence of fraud.” Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission then certified the voting results, which gave him less than the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff.
In light of the fraud claims and in the face of Western pressure, Karzai agreed to a November 7 runoff with his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.
Karzai said, the “last election was not as bad as it was claimed; it was a lot better.”
“Afghanistan is a poor country, in Western terminology — a Third World country,” he said, observing that it “has gone through years of war.”
“The institutions are just young toddlers in this democracy that resembles a toddler. It walks and falls. We have to understand that, and we have to accept the Afghan elections in the context of the Afghan situation and the poverty and lack of means in this country,” Karzai said.
[Can one take this puppet clown as a serious leader for Afghanistan? – Oui]
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."