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The World’s Jeb Sharp has an update on the vote recount in the Afghan elections.
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MARCO WERMAN: In Afghanistan today, election officials starting recounting suspect ballots from August’s disputed presidential election. The results of the recount are expected next week.
The election crisis has called into question the legitimacy of President Hamid Karzai, as well as the future of the whole US operation in Afghanistan. The World’s Jeb Sharp has this update.
JEB SHARP: Allegations of fraud have been widespread ever since the election was carried out. Officials are re-examining two main categories of suspect ballot boxes, those from ballot stations reporting 100 percent turnout, and boxes in which 95 percent of the ballots were marked for the same candidate.
ALEXANDER THIER: It’s important to note this recounting process is based not on the entirety of potentially fraudulent votes but on a statistical sample of those votes.
SHARP: Alexander Thier is director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the US Institute of Peace.
THIER: The reason they decided they could only do a sample is because when they applied this criteria they came up with nearly 4,000 out of 25,000 polling stations that needed to be re-examined, which is an enormous number of polling stations from all over the country.
SHARP: Thier says a full recount would simply be impractical. It would take months and only add to ongoing uncertainty and instability. Election official Zekriya Barakzai sounded upbeat today about prospects for the recount:
ZEKRIYA BARAKZAI: It will take three days for us to complete the audit process here and I think that by end of next week most probably we will be able to announce the final results.
SHARP: The partial recount comes against the backdrop of a public row between the UN representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, and his American former deputy Peter Galbraith. Galbraith says the evidence of fraud is much larger than the UN mission admits. President Karzai’s challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, is citing Galbraith’s objections as further evidence of massive fraud. Karzai’s foreign minister, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, says Galbraith has no right to interfere in the elections.
RANGIN DADFAR SPANTA: [speaking foreign language]
SHARP: He says anyone, either the special envoy of the UN secretary general or his deputy going to the offices of the institutions of Afghanistan and telling them what to do and not to do is interference and must be prevented. Alex Thier says the argument between Eide and Galbraith is essentially about the United Nations’ role in Afghanistan and whether it was appropriate for the UN to become involved in the political conflict over the elections. Thier says UN credibility in Afghanistan may well take a hit:
THIER: It has also made this election story that much more fraught because there is now clear division within leading international actors about the legitimacy of the election which further calls the entire enterprise into question.
SHARP: Thier points out that the whole policy of the US and its allies in Afghanistan is predicated on working with a credible Afghan government to advance collective goals. He says the recount process must take its course but he thinks the ultimate solution to the crisis should be a political one, whether a run off election or power sharing arrangement or other political deal. For the World, I’m Jeb Sharp.
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