Voters In Afghanistan Are Still Waiting
A U.N.-backed electoral complaints commission again delayed an announcement of its findings about fraud in the August 20th presidential election. NPR's Jackie Northam discusses the negotiations going on in the capital and about a possible power-sharing deal that could help stabilize the country.
GUY RAZ, host:
Across the border in Afghanistan, voters are waiting for the U.N.-backed electoral complaints commission to announce its findings on the August 20 presidential election.
Incumbent President Hamid Karzai had claimed victory with a bit more than 54 percent of the vote. But after allegations of voter fraud, the electoral commission could disqualify enough of those ballots to force a runoff. If that happens, Karzai would face the former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah.
Earlier, I asked our correspondent in Kabul, Jackie Northam, about when the commission will make its announcement.
JACKIE NORTHAM: They're now saying that they will release the results tomorrow, Sunday, rather than today. They didn't give reason why things were being pushed back. But the commission's findings are very, very sensitive because there's a lot at stake here. After the commissioners have crunched their numbers, the results could go one of two ways: Incumbent President Hamid Karzai may indeed have gotten more than 50 percent of the vote and so stay in power for another term; or if the number of votes for him drops below 50 percent, there could be a runoff election.
RAZ: Several foreign officials are in the country now, including Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad. They're trying to negotiate some kind of resolution to the electoral crisis. There's also speculation that the Obama administration wants to broker a power-sharing deal in which Karzai would bring his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, into the government. Karzai has fallen out of favor with Washington, in part, because he's been accused of tolerating corruption.
But yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told CNN that she expects that Karzai would win in a runoff.
Here's Jackie Northam from Kabul again.
NORTHAM: The big question is, does he have credibility? Does - is he legitimate in the eyes of Afghans and the international community? And especially something like the U.S. - I mean, they want to be dealing with, you know, an honest broker in Afghanistan as the leader if they want to try implement any of the programs that they have here, if they want to try to bring security to this country and that - and this election has been so tainted by fraud. The question is, how can they deal with Karzai?
RAZ: A question the administration no doubt will be asking this coming week when the president's National Security team meets once again to discuss a new strategy for how to stabilize that country. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
