Afghanistan Elections

[Verizon]

^
http://www.azadiradio.org/en/specials/elections/features/2004/10/F0C6D87F-6662-4F24-8000-EC531C5C8360.asp

Pay attention to

According to Kennedy some of the ballot “boxes were so obviously stuffed that” the JEMB did not believe “they were legitimately cast votes,”

[Verizon]

Here is another one

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/299891.shtml

[Verizon]

This is what Afghanistan really needs.

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/6ca8d68246d5dd04c1256f270036a837?OpenDocument

:french:

[Ohioguy]

Do yourself a favor and don’t take one sentence out of context. Here is the whole article that YOU posted:

Official: Irregularities Should Not Affect Afghan Vote Results
Ray Kennedy, deputy chairman of the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), said in Kabul on 26 October that irregularities in the election should not overturn the victory by Afghan Transitional Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai, AP reported. According to Kennedy some of the ballot “boxes were so obviously stuffed that” the JEMB did not believe “they were legitimately cast votes,” but even if all of the questionable ballots were voided it would not push Karzai to a level below 50 percent of votes, which would force a runoff. JEMB officials are predicting that the UN panel of experts established to investigate the complaints of irregularities in the electoral process will submit its final report by 31 October, clearing the way for Karzai’s victory (see “RFE/RL Afghanistan Report,” 25 October 2004). According to JEMB, on 26 October, with 98.4 percent of the votes counted, Karzai was first with 55.5 percent of the vote while his closed rival, Mohammad Yunos Qanuni, stood second with 16.2 percent of the votes http://www.afg-electionresults.org/. (Amin Tarzi) http://www.azadiradio.org/en/specials/elections/features/2004/10/F0C6D87F-6662-4F24-8000-EC531C5C8360.asp

but even if all of the questionable ballots were voided it would not push Karzai to a level below 50 percent of votes, which would force a runoff. Why would you ignore a statement like this, other than to prove your bias? Stop cutting and pasting crap to defend a position that has no factual basis.

[Verizon]

^ hmmm questionable ballots, Florida, elections, 2000 fair elections…
Yeah you are right maybe I shouldn’t take things out of context.

[Ohioguy]

So you can't defend your statements about Afghanistan so you throw up some vague odd reference to Florida, insinuating that somehow they are connected or related?

Engage brain before posting, and stick to the topic of the thread.

[Verizon]

Afghanistan Politics

Now I dont mean to take this out of context either but when I engaged my brain it urged me to quote

Though observers were pleased with the relative absence of violent disruptions to the poll, the elections did not come off without controversy. In the weeks before the election, the number of registered voters came to exceed the estimated number of eligible voters in the country, raising many eyebrows as multiple-registration was added to the list of fraud allegations. To prevent people from voting more than once, each voter’s thumb was to be marked with indelible ink after casting a ballot, so they could be easily identified when trying to vote a second time. However, through the day it became evident that some of the markers contained an ink that could be easily washed off, thus undermining the protection against multiple-voting.

These problems, in addition to other claims of fraud and intimidation, prompted all 15 candidates opposing Karzai to call for a boycott of the poll mid-way through election day. Support for the boycott soon crumbled, however, under pressure to respect the election results, and due to the view that the candidates were selling Afghanistan’s goals for their own short-term political gain. Candidates agreed to heed the opinion of a United Nations investigation into the irregulaties, and on 24 October 2004 runner-up Qanooni conceded defeat.

Despite Karzai’s outright victory, and opponents’ acceptance of the result, hopes that the election would provide a broad, multi-ethnic mandate for Karzai’s reform agenda were not fully realized. Some were disappointed that the margin of victory was not larger. And perhaps more worrying, of the 21 provinces Karzai - an ethnic Pashtun - won, 19 were in the Pashtun-dominated south. In the other two provinces Karzai carried, he took pluralities but not majorities. Similarly, Qanooni seemed to bank the Tajik vote and Dostum the Uzbek vote. What is more, many Afghans believed the outcome pre-determined, with Karzai the American-ordained victor from the outset.

**the number of registered voters came to exceed the estimated number of eligible voters **

[Ohioguy]

"estimated"

Now when you have election observers from all over the world agreeing in a statement that the election was reasonably fair, and all of the oppositions drops their complaints, does that tell you something? Or in the face of these facts are you still rumaging around for something horrible here?

You made up your mind that Afghans are corrupt, because the US could not possibly do this without thousands of accomplices, if they were to rig an election. Don't you think that one of those thousand would be on AlJazeera the next day? Don't youthink that some warlord would feel ripped off enough to raise a stink.

Face it, you made up your mind what you want to believe long before the vote. And now you are Googling like mad to try to make your case. Have at it....

[Verizon]

I guess that puts us in the same boat, you have made up your mind that the elections were fair and I have that they were rigged (may rigging was a bad choice of a word).

Here is another googling for you.

http://www.alternet.org/story/20005/