Karzai Closes In, but U.N. Orders Recounts

U.N. monitors found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud” in Afghanistan’s recent election and have cast doubt on results from 600 polling places. Hamid Karzai has so far secured more than the 50 percent needed to win, but U.N. officials have ordered recounts and investigations of the suspect precincts.

Hamid Karzai may feel that fraud is “inevitable in a budding democracy,” but the Afghan people who survived 400 Taliban attacks on election day deserve accurate results.  —PS

BBC:

The results push President Karzai past the 50% threshold needed to avoid a run-off with rival Abdullah Abdullah.

But the figures were thrown into doubt by the UN-backed election complaints commission ordering a number of recounts and audits of votes.

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U.S. Army / Staff Sgt. Ken Denny

An Afghan election monitor prepares a ballot for a voter during Afghanistan’s first parliamentary election in 2005. Afghanistan’s democracy may be budding, but the bloom has come off it’s electoral process.