Karzai's Vote Theft

The Times has the staggering toll:

One in three votes cast for President Karzai in Afghanistan's presidential elections were faked, with the official body overseeing the ballot condoning the massive fraud, EU election observers said today.

Around 1.1 million votes in favour of Mr Karzai met Afghanistan's electoral fraud criteria, as well as 300,000 cast for Abdullah Abdullah, Mr Karzai's main rival. A futher 100,000 suspect votes were cast for other candidates.

The EU team accused Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission of ignoring its own rules on identifying and eliminating suspect votes, and thus of sanctioning the fraud.

If the suspect votes had been excluded, Mr Karzai's total share of the vote would fall to 47 per cent and a second round run off in the presidential election would be triggered, the observers found.

This is where the proponents of victory need to clarify their position. Are we in this for a stable Afghanistan, even if it is ruled by a corrupt and illegitimate clique? Or are we in this to change the fundamental nature of Afghanistan's governing institutions? There are worse things than a corrupt-but-stable Afghanistan, but such an outcome would almost certainly leave the country ripe for the sort of Taliban-style takeover that occurred in the 1990s. On the other hand, given how rife the country is with corruption, can we realistically achieve anything better?

(AP Photos)