How the Afghanistan Presidential Election Was Rigged

Time by Peter W. Galbraith | Oct. 16, 2009 (Opinion)

No one will ever know how Afghans voted in their country's presidential elections on Aug. 20, 2009. Seven weeks after the polling, the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) is still trying to separate fraudulent tallies from ballots. In some provinces, many more votes were counted than were cast. E.U. election monitors characterize 1.5 million votes as suspect, which would include up to one-third of the votes cast for incumbent President Hamid ... Full Story »

Posted by Derek Hawkins

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Subjects: World, U.S.
Topics: United Nations, Afghanistan, Foreign Policy
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# Tweets: 3 (as of 2009-10-16)
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Posted by: Posted by Derek Hawkins - Oct 16, 2009 - 11:51 AM PDT
Reviewed by: Derek Hawkins (review), James Canning (review)
Content Type: Article
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Edited by: Derek Hawkins - Oct 16, 2009 - 11:53 AM PDT
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Derek Hawkins
3.5
 by Derek Hawkins - Oct. 16, 2009
Derek posted this story.
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James Canning
3.8
 by James Canning - Oct. 16, 2009

Informative piece, but it clearly shows the Afghan elections were more important for countries sending troops to Afghanistan, than for Afghanistan itself. I think Galbraith has caused a great deal of trouble.

I continue to believe Hamid Karzai is the best person to be in the exceedingly challenging job of president of Afghanistan. I very much doubt the merits of an American-style country-wide election for president, in a country like Afghanistan. Karzai should make a deal with Abdullah Abdullah (main challenger) and put this thing behind him, if he can.

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  • The Afghanistan Impasse

    The New York Review of Books by Ahmed Rashid | Oct. 15, 2009 (Opinion)
    Pakistan's safe havens for the Afghan Taliban have been to a large extent responsible for their revival and growing dominance across Afghanistan and for the rising death toll ...
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    4.3
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  • Counterintuitive counterinsurgency

    Los Angeles Times by Richard Fontaine, John Nagl | Oct. 15, 2009 (Opinion)
    As the Obama administration debates whether to stick with the counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan, opponents point to that nation's flawed presidential election as a ...
    Posted by Derek Hawkins
    2.8
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