Afghanistan election

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Karzai Challenger Rejects Plan to Share Power

Abdullah wants interim government: 'Karzai's term is over'

(Newser) - Abdullah Abdullah, who came in second in the first round of Afghanistan's presidential election, is calling for an interim government to take over the country if it's too difficult or dangerous to organize a runoff in the coming weeks. The challenger to Hamid Karzai also rejected suggestions of a power-sharing...

Karzai Accepts UN Recount, Runoff Looms

Runoff election looms as prez bows to pressure

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai will bow to international pressure and accept the results of a UN-backed recount of Afghanistan's presidential election, US and European officials tell the New York Times. The incumbent will publicly acknowledge he fell short of 50% of the first-round vote as early as today, setting the stage for...

Clinton 'Hopeful' as Karzai Weighs Runoff, Deal

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai intends to announce tomorrow how he will "set the stage" for resolving the country's postelection political crisis, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today. She wouldn't say whether the Afghan president has decided to accept the findings of a UN-backed fraud investigation that threw out nearly a...

Karzai Allies Get Tough on Recount

Afghan president's team blasts UN-backed election body

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai's camp is signaling he may not accept the results of a recount from Afghanistan's presidential election, sowing further doubt about the country's future. A spokesman said the recount process had been "politically manipulated," and Karzai allies spent the weekend criticizing the UN-backed electoral commission that is...

Afghan Election Now Headed for Runoff

'Stunning' second ballot complicates Obama strategy

(Newser) - President Hamid Karzai's share of the vote in Afghanistan's presidential election has reportedly fallen to about 47% after an investigation into fraudulent ballots—meaning that he will face Abdullah Abdullah in a runoff if the result is finalized today. One Afghan official called the development "stunning," and a...

Karzai's Government Too Rotten to Back
Karzai's Government
Too Rotten to Back
OPINION
Oct 14, 2009 1:19 AM CDT

Karzai's Government Too Rotten to Back

Sending more troops won't work if they're protecting a tainted government

(Newser) - No counterinsurgency campaign can succeed without a good government to work with, and Hamid Karzai's operation is nowhere near good enough, writes Thomas L. Friedman. Karzai's government is thoroughly corrupt and his election victory deeply tainted, Friedman notes in the New York Times. Much of the insurgency is now fueled...

Iraq Hawks Are Just as Wrong on Afghanistan

Why is anyone still listening to McCain, Lieberman, and Graham?

(Newser) - The Three Amigos who pushed the invasion of Iraq are at it again, now claiming that we must escalate the war in Afghanistan if we want to avoid another 9/11—the same claim they used before to urge us to take on Iraq in 2003, Frank Rich writes. Rich finds...

Biden Plan Would Target al-Qaeda, not Taliban

 Biden Plan 
 Would Target 
 al-Qaeda, 
 not Taliban 
Afghan war rethink
Sep 23, 2009 7:27 AM CDT

Biden Plan Would Target al-Qaeda, not Taliban

No consensus has emerged in White House war room

(Newser) - The Obama administration’s national security heavyweights have yet to reach any kind of consensus on a strategy for Afghanistan, the New York Times reports. Obama is considering both increasing troop levels to carry out his original counterinsurgency strategy, and an alternative plan from Joe Biden that would pull troops...

Afghan Vote's True Winner: The Taliban
 Afghan Vote's True 
 Winner: The Taliban 
ANALYSIS
Sep 21, 2009 5:57 AM CDT

Afghan Vote's True Winner: The Taliban

Chaos and corruption aid insurgents' propaganda campaign

(Newser) - It's still not evident whether Hamid Karzai will avoid a runoff in Afghanistan's presidential vote, but the winner of the election is clear: the Taliban. Delays in tallying and alleged systemic fraud have given the insurgency new material for a sophisticated propaganda campaign that portrays the Karzai administration as corrupt...

Karzai Working on Deals With Challengers

Power-sharing agreement may be in the works

(Newser) - The Afghanistan election has turned into such a mess that President Hamid Karzai is discussing some kind of partnership with at least two of his challengers, the Wall Street Journal reports. His camp and that of top challenger Abdullah Abdullah are talking through third parties, while Karzai also has reached...

Recounts Ordered at 2,500 Afghan Voting Sites

Total could drop Karzai low enough to require a run-off

(Newser) - A UN-backed monitoring body ordered Afghanistan's election commission to recount ballots from about 10% of the country's polling stations because of suspicious totals in last month's presidential vote, the AP reports. The recount order raises the possibility that President Hamid Karzai's lead could drop below the 50% threshold, forcing the...

Afghans Stock Up on Guns After Disputed Election

Political turmoil sends 'Kalashnikov Index' soaring

(Newser) - The price of a smuggled Kalashnikov assault rifle in Afghanistan has more than doubled in recent weeks amid rising political turbulence, Time reports. Last month's election is widely believed to have been rigged in favor of President Hamid Karzai, and many fear challenger Abdullah Abdullah and the warlords he represents...

Afghan Fraud Panel Tosses Votes From 83 Stations

(Newser) - The UN-backed commission investigating fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election has thrown out ballots from 83 polling stations across the country, all of them in areas with strong support for President Hamid Karzai. The president currently has more than 50% of the preliminary count. But if the commission throws out enough...

Afghan Election Watchdogs Order Partial Vote Recount

Electoral commission sees 'clear and convincing' fraud in presidential race

(Newser) - A UN-backed electoral commission has ordered a partial ballot recount of the Aug. 20 election in Afghanistan, CNN reports, amid what it called "clear and convincing evidence of fraud in a number of polling stations." The decision comes less than 24 hours after the US ambassador met with...

Karzai Set Up 800 Fake Poll Sites, Say Diplomats

Ten times as many ballots as voters, say Western officials

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai's supporters set up hundreds of fake polling stations that delivered hundreds of thousands of votes to the Afghan president, even though nobody voted there, diplomats tell the New York Times. The incumbent's team created as many as 800 fake sites, existing only on paper. Karzai allies also occupied...

Karzai Team Forged All 24K Ballots in 1 District: Charge

Afghan president's campaign allegedly detained tribal leader, closed polls

(Newser) - Tribal leaders in southern Afghanistan make the strongest allegations yet of ballot fraud, telling Dexter Filkins of the New York Times that in their district, "Hamid Karzai's people stuffed all the ballot boxes." Members of the Bariz tribe, who endorsed challenger Abdullah Abdullah, say aides to Karzai's brother—...

Fraud Accusations Double in Afghan Election

Karzai's opponents accuse him of stuffing ballot boxes

(Newser) - When a Kabul school teacher arrived at 6am at an election station he was supposed to run, he found the ballot boxes already full. When he protested, the local tribal chieftain’s men took him away. His is just one of 550 serious fraud accusations that Afghan election officials are...

Insurgents Reverse Afghan Women's Political Gains

(Newser) - Afghan women streamed to the ballot boxes five years ago, and in some districts female turnout was even higher than male. But the flood of women voters that delighted aid groups dried up this year, reports the Washington Post, and many of the segregated female polling stations had few if...

Taliban Cut Off My Nose, Ears for Voting: Farmer

Kabul hospital turned him away due to overcrowding

(Newser) - An Afghan farmer who dared walk to a polling place for the presidential election 10 days ago paid a bitter price, losing his nose and both ears in a Taliban attack, the Independent reports. In the first account by a victim of election retribution, Lal Mohammed, 40, says three militants...

US Envoy Gets Hot With Karzai Over Fraud

Source says Holbrooke meeting with Afghan prez was 'explosive,' 'dramatic bust-up'

(Newser) - The top US envoy to Afghanistan held an “explosive” meeting with President Hamid Karzai last week, sources tell the BBC, with the “dramatic bust-up” focused on reports of election fraud. The meeting was held a day after the Aug. 20 election, before any results were released, but Richard...

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