The election drama was put in suspense and the country was virtually engulfed in a rumor of constitutional deadlock when Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the second round citing the non-fulfillment of his conditions for a transparent and fair second round of elections on November 7 of this year. However, the Afghan Independent Election Commission was quick to respond with a big surprise. It was expected that the deadlock may lead to a delay of the elections till next spring as was expected by Abdullah’s camp as well.
The second round was very important to get the elections a credibility that the world should accept but the world players and main deciders did their homework and back door diplomacy so fantastic that there was no need to risk the life of hundreds of Afghans who would dare go to the polling stations and get their fingers cut by threatening Taliban militias. Luckily to the man who stood firmly though he had openly cheated and an Electoral Complaints Commission backed by UN had found “clear and convincing fraud” in the first round by the man who is now re-elected as the President of Afghanistan for another five years term.
The questions that remained unanswered during these rush hours are what happened to the credibility of the elections that was demanded by the US and its allies? Do elections get credibility when one of the two contenders decides to stay away? Who will pay for the huge amounts of dollars that flow into the process? Who is really the decider? It was John Kerry who convinced Karzai to accept the decision of ECC and it was Ban Ki Moon who travelled all the way to Kabul to make sure Karzai wins. The confusing question also is what went through Abdullah’s mind to quit so smoothly? What made Karzai stand so boldly against Abdullah turning down his conditions? Is it all the money that’s now suspected to have run through the pockets of the two cheaters?
Whatever the answers to these posed questions could be, the fact remains that Karzai is now the official president for another five years term and he is soon going to take oath of his office. The fact also is that a cheater has won with the support of world community. Till date people would say that a certain country is to such an extent corrupt on the basis of Transparency International Reports. Now, a corrupt system has been enforced through a corrupt person by the world community at large (of course they are also corrupt since they’ve supported corruption). Further, Karzai’s most recent resolve against corruption is an open mockery of the so-called democracy in the world’s youngest democracy. With the selection of this president by such a fraud process brings no credibility to anything. If Karzai really bothers about corruption in Afghanistan, he should boldly act and first put behind bars his notorious brother whose reports of involvement with CIA and drug market in Afghanistan hit the headlines across the globe just a week ago.
Interestingly, Karzai’s re-election has been welcomed by the country’s that smelled rats in the first round including the US and UK. Therefore, everything is well that ends well and happily for Karzai that everything went his way up to the aisle.