UN Election Body Head Admits Afghan Runoff Will Be Just As Fraud-Filled

By Steve Hynd

Despite every member of both the Obama administration and Gordon Brown's government who has an opportunity to voice an opinion getting ready to follow Richard Holbrooke's spin that there will be less "irregularities" in the Afghan run-off election, none really believe it. It's all about creating an illusion of legitimacy around Karzai's inevitable win so that the troop escalation and continued occupation can proceed.

Not even the heads of the two electoral bodies concerned with the election believe the spin.Dexter Filkins, in a piece today describing how Karzai had to be all-but dragged onto the podium to accept the run-off decision, has this:

Despite assurances from officials with the United Nations and Western governments, there seemed little reason to expect that the fraud and vote stealing that occurred in August wouldn�t happen again. Unless something changes by Nov. 7 � the day of the runoff � most of the same officials are likely to be in place who carried out the fraud the first time around.

�Mr. Karzai got 48 percent of the vote and Abdullah got 27,� said Azizullah Ludin, the chairman of the Independent Election Commission. Despite its title, the commission is widely seen here as a tool of the president. �We will have another election, and we�ll have the same result.�

Mr. Ludin smiled broadly. �Karzai is going to win.�

And in the Daily Telegraph, in a report on how opposition candidate Abullah Abdullah's accusations of "massive fraud, state-engineered fraud and fraud collaborated by election officials" were vindicated, there is this:

The United Nations chief in Afghanistan admitted to The Sunday Telegraph that little could be done to stop more fraud.

As hurried preparations were being made to hold the second vote, Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Kabul, said: "I hope measures will be taken by the election commission so that fraud will be less than it was last time, but let's be realistic - a second round two weeks from now is not in quality going to be dramatically improved.

"Our aim is less fraud. There are measures we can undertake at short notice, but it is difficult to change the situation dramatically." Turnout could be substantially less than the 33 per cent of eligible voters who cast votes in August, though Mr Eide said was not necessarily a failing. "It is quite normal in any country that turnout is lower in a runoff vote," he said.

Fraud and a disenfranchised Afghan rural population - where's the legitimacy in that?