» posted on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 at 7:48 am by
Karzai and Abdullah elbow to elbow in Kabul
Candidate Abdullah Abdullah first made public yesterday, newsletters and other documents showing he believes cheating supporters of Hamid Karzai.
Candidate Abdullah Abdullah first made public yesterday, newsletters and other documents showing he believes cheating supporters of Hamid Karzai. Photo credits: AFP
The outgoing President remains confident in his victory when the recount will extend to the rest of the country.
While the ring of mountains surrounding Kabul wore a mauve sky late Tuesday afternoon, the Afghan and foreign journalists found themselves all in the somewhat outdated Intercontinental, ideal place for filming of a new OSS 117. Built in 1969 by the British to the top of a hill west of Kabul, the hotel because of its location, survived all the wars that ravaged downtown.
The chairman of the Electoral Commission, an independent agency overseen by international observers, was to announce the results of counting of 10% of the votes cast. Wearing a gray business suit strictly in Western style, the top Afghan judge solemnly took the floor with three quarters of an hour behind schedule, announcing the exact number of votes cast for each candidate. Surprise: President Hamid Karzai (41% of the votes) was pressed by his main rival, Dr Abdullah Abdullah (39%)!
Two hours earlier it had summoned the international press in the garden of his family villa, situated in a residential area north of Kabul. Fluent in English and political communication to perfection, Abdullah had a double message to hammer.
790 complaints
First, his staff campaign would not sit idly before the “massive fraud and ballot stuffing” whose power had he believed guilty. The Electoral Commission has received some 790 complaints, 54 of which it considers itself serious. Obviously, the camp also accused Karzai of fraud campaign Abdullah.
Second, the main challenger of the incumbent President reiterated his calls for calm: no question for him to shift the debate in the street. Many impartial observers (diplomats, journalists, permanent NGOs) estimate that Abdullah made two major mistakes during his campaign, also perfectly organized. He first waved allude to the possibility of a surge of its armed men in Kabul. The outcry caused by this double talk, he immediately removed, but the damage was done. Then, his staff has issued numerous pictures of him in combat fatigues, dating from the time he was the principal political advisor to the legendary commander Massoud. Disastrous effect on the population! The mujahideen are hated by Afghans because they have destroyed the capital in the years 1992-1996, when they settled their rivalries with blows of mortar shells. Abdullah has come to understand. Today, he stands before the television cameras that saroual-kameez traditional Afghan covered with a stylish jacket in the West.
Deadliest year for NATO
These early results did not seem unduly alarmed Dr. Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, Minister of Finance and Chief Economic Adviser to President Karzai. Home receiving the special envoy of Figaro, he said: “There is now clear that President Karzai will be elected in the first round with a score exceeding 60%!” Holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics issued by a Canadian university, speaking calmly in perfect English, Mr. Zakhilwal certainly not a buffoon. So why so much confidence? The explanation is simple: the first polls were stripped those in Kabul and surrounding areas, where the Tajik Abdullah Abdullah has always enjoyed strong electoral base. But supporters of President Karzai is confident that the curves will differ drastically, as and as the Electoral Commission will announce the results of more distant provinces. In the West, Ismail Khan, the undisputed lord of Herat, has sided with Karzai. In the north, Mazar-i Sharif, General Dostum, leader of the Uzbek community, has done the same. In the Pashtun areas of eastern and southern Karzai should emulate his good scores in 2004.
Expected result, Dr. Bachardost leader of the minority Hazara (Shiite), persecuted under the mujahideen, then under the Taliban, get 10% of votes in the recount part.
The turnout? We now know that more than 5 million Afghans and Afghans turned out August 20. That’s two million votes fewer than in the presidential election of 2004, but it’s still a great result for NATO, which has already lost 295 men since the beginning of the year (more than during full year 2008).
The Taliban (a core group of 3 000 soldiers, disciplined, highly motivated, and well armed) had they not promised to punish all Afghans who participated in this poll “ungodly”? Video hallucinating reached yesterday at the Arab satellite television Al Jazeera. We see, on the main Kabul-Kandahar road, superbly tarred by the Americans, the Taleban on a motorcycle suddenly stop all vehicles. Checking passengers’ fingers, they leave those who bear the mark of pad electoral fraud.
The unfortunates are then chained, hooded and taken away in single file along a mountain trail. Accuracy commando’s Taliban: “Those Afghans behaved as agents of the Jews. They will therefore be punished. We do not yet know how! “Clearly the work of NATO is still far from finished in Afghanistan .
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