Hamid Karzai elected President; No runoff

Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan has been declared elected in the presidential election, which was held on 20^th August, this year. The Independent Election Commission’s Chairman Azizullah Ludin declared Karzai elected without going for the run off election, which was scheduled on 7^th November. The election held on 20^th August, was marred by large scale rigging and bungling in which involvement of UN officials was also established, making it dismal. Hamid Karzai even then could not achieve 50 percent of the votes as required under Constitution of Afghanistan to be declared elected.

This situation necessitated runoff election between Hamid Karzai and Dr Abdullah Abdullah. Dr Abdullah had been leveling serious charges of fraud and rigging in election by Hamid Karzai and his supporters. He also demanded dismissal of Chief of Independent Election Commission, because he alleged that he has been working in connivance with Hamid Karzai to confer undue favour on him. Dr Abdullah had given some suggestions to the President and UN with regard to conduction of a peaceful and fair runoff election and if these suggestions are not incorporated there is no point in participating him in the runoff fray, he added. As the dead line set by Abdullah expired, he decided to refrain and withdraw from the runoff election.

Now Independent Election Commission was left with two options. It may have gone for run off election even when there is no second candidate in the fray, because Article 61 of Constitution of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan provides for runoff in case none of the candidates secure 50% of votes casted. Now this was a peculiar situation under which none of the candidates could secure 50% of votes but only one candidate was left in the fray. The Commission had been deliberating upon to conduct runoff but the USA and many European Nato countries and off course, the UN itself was not in favour of going for runoff as it could have risked lives of personnel. There was another risk of exposing country for fresh spell of attacks, which is already war ravaged. There was a serious apprehension of violence because Taliban has given call for boycott of the election.

It was under this situation and under tremendous pressure of  international community, the IEC decided to declare Hamid Karzai elected for the presidential election without a runoff.

Now there is no doubt that Karzai is going for the second tenure but his moral authority is at stake. He could not secure 50% of votes in the elections which itself has lost its credibility in the eyes of both international community and Afghani people. The USA on the other hand is desperately trying to win over Dr Abdullah to join the government under Karzai. It is noteworthy that Dr Abdullah has already served under Karzai as Foreign Minister.

Obama is facing tough time in Afghanistan. He is yet to decide on the issue of sending more 40,000 US troops to Afghanistan as demanded by Mc Crystal. The security situation in this country is fast deteriorating and writs of Afghan government do not run in majority of the provinces. The top Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders including Osama and Mullah Md Omar are still on the run. Pakistan is also under siege; its war against TTP is not yielding desired results. Hide and Seek game between Pakistan army and TTP is on. News of NUKE technology leak by Dr Abdul Quadir Khan has increased apprehensions of possible slip of N-tech to terrorists.

Under the prevailing situation, the South Asian region may witness some more troublesome years. It remains to be seen that whether grotesque legacy of Bush in the region could be shed or carried forward by Barrack Obama and Hamid Karzai. But one thing can be said for sure, that election in Afghanistan became a missed opportunity.