Karzai in Wonderland

I swear I saw a Cheshire-cat grin slowly evaporating around President Hamid Karzai at today’s press conference, where he was hailed as a statesman and a leader for obeying the law.

Karzai beamed as he announced that a second round of elections would be held on Nov. 7, barely two weeks away, even as he obliquely rejected the findings of the Electoral Complaints Commission that necessitated the runoff.

“I leave it to the Afghan people to decide … if I am the winner or not," he said, referring to the first round of voting.

Well, not exactly, Mr. President. According to the law, it was the Independent Election Commission, upon instructions from the Electoral Complaints Commission, that decided that you, in fact, did not receive the 50-percent-plus-one that was secured through what we now know was widespread fraud.

Once the ECC released its findings yesterday, after days of under-the-rug wrangling by various international bulldogs, the IEC, and Karzai himself, had little choice but to bow to the inevitable. Still, the international community treated the Afghan president like Metternich in Vienna for graciously agreeing to do what he was sworn to do – uphold the Constitution and the law of the land.

The array of international figures who stood with Karzai on the dais – the ambassadors of the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, plus U.S. Senator John Kerry and UN Special Representative Kai Eide — raised questions as to whether the international community was maintaining its impartiality.

“It was like a political love-in for Karzai,” was how one international election observer put it.

My Afghan colleague was just as mystified.

“Why are all those diplomats there?” murmured Nasimi, who watched the event with me.

“Karzai is one of the candidates, isn’t he? Where is Abdullah?” Nasimi asked, referring to Abdullah Abdullah is the second-place finisher who will face Karzai in the runoff.

The question is a good one, of course. But with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  announcing to CNN that Karzai would almost certainly win a second round, most election watchers here say it is clear who Washington favors.

We keep being told in the international media that Afghanistan is not Switzerland. I, for one, have never been in the slightest doubt that Kabul and Zurich are wildly different entities. I happen to live in the former.

I suppose it is meant to soothe us into thinking that we cannot expect free and fair elections in a conflict-ridden state that is only now emerging from three decades of nightmare.

I agree. But what is the international community’s excuse? One diplomat, who requested anonymity, told me that her boss had just shrugged at the persistent rumors of fraud during the first round.

“What do you expect?” he said. “This election is good enough for the Afghans.”

The United Nations, another international body, was tasked with overseeing the process, and facilitating a valid election.

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who ran a distant fourth in the presidential elections, was scathing in his criticism of the UN.

“The UN dropped the ball,” he said. “(They) cannot be trusted to conduct free and fair elections.”

I can only imagine what the runoff will look like. The August poll was bad enough, and that was after months of painstaking work. A hastily cobbled-together vote will cost millions of dollars, and more importantly, dozens of lives. And in the end, it will not give us what we so badly need from it – legitimacy.

The Afghan electorate are neither stupid not unsophisticated. One look at Karzai with his honor guard today would quickly dispel the notion that they are in control of their own destiny.

“Good enough for the Afghans”? I don’t think so.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/afghanistan/091020/karzai-wonderland