Karzai warns West over Afghan vote fraud claims

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Source: CNN

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday warned Western observers not to "delegitimize" the results of his country's presidential election, which has been marred by allegations of fraud.

Results of the completed count, announced Wednesday, gave Karzai 54 percent of the vote in the August 20 poll, but the numbers won't be certified until authorities investigate allegations of irregularities. More than 200,000 of the nearly 5.7 million votes cast have been thrown out, including 29,000 in a swath of Afghanistan where Karzai has strong support, and European Union observers have raised questions about 1.5 million more.

In an interview with CNN's "The Situation Room," Karzai said he would leave the complaints to Afghanistan's two electoral bodies. But addressing the Western powers who have supported his government with financial aid and troops, he said, "It is not in anybody's interest to try to delegitimize the election of the Afghan people."

"I don't think we are serving ourselves by throwing such massive doubts on the election of the Afghan people, who conducted it under such extreme difficulties that I don't think history has witnessed as far as elections are concerned," he said.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/17/afghan.... /

[Teaser]

1. "Dear West, please stop saving my ass from being blown the fuck up."

your friend,

Hamid Karzai

[saigon68]

8. Meet the Mayor of Kabul = CIA Puppet Charlie McKarzai

[Suji to Seoul]

2. Dear Mayor of Kabul: Shut the Fuck Up!

We can't delegitimize something that isn't legitimate in the first place, you upper fraud!

Sincerely,

Pissed off American Ex-patriot living in a country near you

[damntexdem]

3. Or else what?

Or else he might face a runoff? Or else, he might cheat again in the runoff?

Or else he might tell the U.S. and others to take their soldiers and go home? Ooh, how daunting!

[GodlyDemocrat]

4. I halfway agree with him

I think that there should be an orderly effort by the US and the EU to verify the veracity of the election results, but that it should be done quietly and not in a way that somehow implies that Muslim countries are simply incapable of having fair elections.

If there is a perception that only us whites know how to run fair elections, this will turn out very badly. Some of the statements by non governmental officials (e.g. Carter) have been undiplomatic and unconstructive.

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5. Carter implied "only us whites know how to run fair elections"?

I don't want to pick a fight, but that does not sound like Carter.

[GodlyDemocrat]

7. Carter stated outright that Karzai stole the election

I never said that Carter implied that Muslims could not run fair elections. Rather, I said that this implication will be drawn by accusing the Afghans outrightly that the election was rigged. Yes, its semantics, but there's a major difference in those two statements. Edit, it's intent vs. effect.

[QUALAR]

6. Karzai Must Be Replaced Legally

We made a big mistake backing this Afghan carpetbagger. According to our military, we accidentally eliminated the tribal leaders, who would have been Karzai's main opposition in the first elections for establishing a new government. The cluster bomb was meant to kill Taliban and al-Qaeda. Right! This allowed Karzai to take power and his brother to gain significant control over the drug trafficking. We must not prop up a government that is seen as illegitimate by its people. We tried that several times in Vietnam with disastrous consequences.

[TheLastMohican]

9. Exactly

That will bring even more insurgency in.
We are basically shoving Karzai and his henchmen down Afghani's throats - this is a recipe for a never-ending war, no matter how many more troops we are going to send in.