Karzai 'stripped of outright win'

I believe George W. Bush dragged Canada into a war we did not want any part of executing.  Being a Canadian, I have long been disgusted by the corruption in Afghan Politics under Karzai whose brother is a major Opium dealer.  The West buys their opium in the form of heroin and we send our young men to defend their Freedom?  Thank you, 'W'.

Poppy Farmers


 I have no doubt Karzai's was a faked win in recent elections.
A panel probing fraud claims in the Afghan election has found Hamid Karzai did not gain enough valid votes for an outright win, the BBC understands.

Preliminary results from August's first round had placed Mr Karzai comfortably over the 50% plus one vote threshold needed to avoid a run-off.

But one poll monitoring group estimates that almost one million of Mr Karzai's votes have now been deemed invalid. 

 Poll rules say Mr Karzai must now face a run-off against his nearest rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

In Washington, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she expected Mr Karzai to announce on Tuesday how he would "set the stage" to resolve the country's political crisis.

The IEC's role was to ratify and announce the results. The IEC is accused by many of being too close to a president who appointed all its commissioners. It now says it needs "a day or two" to examine the details of the ECC report.

President Karzai has repeatedly warned foreign countries not to interfere in the election process.
Sources say he firmly believes Western countries, in particular the United States and Britain, are conspiring to rob him of victory.

In its much-anticipated report on Monday, the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) ordered that ballots from 210 polling stations be discounted because it had found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud" at the polling stations, which were across the country.

Initial results released last month had given him nearly 55% of votes, with former foreign minister Mr Abdullah on 28%.  But EU observers have said as many as one in four votes cast were suspicious.

According to Democracy International, a US group involved in monitoring the Afghan election, Mr Karzai's share of the vote has now fallen to just over 48%. ... its own calculations - based on their understanding of the workings of the ECC - now give Mr Karzai 48.29% of the overall vote and Abdullah Abdullah 31.5%.

Although there has been no official reaction from Mr Karzai to the vote probe, he told the UN secretary general he would "fully respect the constitutional order", according to a UN spokeswoman quoted by AFP.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says the Afghan leader believes an election victory has been stolen from him and he is threatening to block attempts to hold any second round.
A spokesman for the UN in Afghanistan, Aleem Siddique, said on Monday they now expected the IEC to "swiftly" announce either final results or a runoff.

The ECC launched its investigation in the wake of the 20 August vote as allegations of mass fraud began to emerge.  The panel reports to the Independent Election Commission (IEC), which will make the final announcement on the election outcome.

The IEC is widely regarded as pro-Karzai, but it is legally bound to accept the ECC's findings.
However, the Canadian head of the ECC, Grant Kippen, told the BBC on Monday his panel's investigation "met international standards and was open, thorough and transparent".

Winter is coming to Afghanistan and the process to hold another election would  be delayed.

With violence at its worst levels across Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, there are warnings the ongoing political paralysis will only embolden the militants.




Story from BBC NEWS