This Saturday was supposed to be the day of the Afghanistan presidential election run-off. In it, Afghans would have had a second chance – after the first elections were widely discredited as fraudulent – to select their national leader, choosing either incumbent Hamid Karzai or his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah.
Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. On Sunday, Abdullah dropped out of the run-off on grounds that a “transparent election was not possible.” Predictably, on the following Monday, Karzai was declared the victor.
In the following days, western media chimed in, many saying that it was a good thing the run-off was canceled.
“I think they would have had a lot of problems with security, with weather, low turnout … and there probably would have been additional fraud and the results of that election could be as bad as the first one,” said CBS News Washington Bureau Chief Chris Isham.
To be sure, a canceled run-off was probably good in the short term. One need only look at last year’s similarly fraudulent elections in Zimbabwe to see the potential for danger.
However, while the cancellation was a good move short-term, the long-term implication is far more troubling.
Apparently elections can be stolen if the incumbent finds a way to draw the process out over a one-year period. Lost in the midst of the west’s gratitude for a short-term good is our horror at a long-term evil.
If Afghanistan’s election this year was rigged – and multiple regulating agencies say it was – then we can’t simply be grateful that Afghanistan won’t descend into election-related violence. We should also call for greater transparency and pressure Karzai’s government until that transparency becomes a reality.
opinion@dailynebraskan.com
Be the first to comment on this article!