Council for a Community of Democracies

Abdullah Drops Out of Afghan Presidential Run-Off, Karzai Declared Winner
November 3, 2009
By: Randi Zung

On November 2, after months of controversy over electoral fraud, election officials in Afghanistan have declared incumbent President Hamid Karzai the winner of the country’s presidential election. Karzai’s challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, quit the race – meaning that the second round run-off vote scheduled for November 7 is no longer necessary. This new development means that Karzai is the uncontested winner of the original August election. Despite blatant findings of ballot stuffing in Karzai’s favor, an independent electoral commission found that he had enough legitimate votes to claim victory. Karzai will be president for another five year term.

After Abdullah dropped out of the running on November 1, Azizullah Lodin, chairman of the Afghan Independent Election Commission, announced that Karzai had won the presidential election. The Washington Post reports that Abdullah quit the race because he did not believe the second round run-off was free of corruption and fraud. In addition, Abdullah made several demands stipulating the requirements for his continued participation in the election, which included the removal of Lodin and other Karzai appointed officials. CNN reports that when Abdullah’s call for transparency was not fulfilled, he quit.

In an article by The New York Times, Karzai, in his first address since being declared winner, vowed to eliminate governmental corruption: “Afghanistan has been tarnished by administrative corruption, and I will launch a campaign to clean the government of corruption.” However, his pledge to fight corruption did not address the restructuring of his administration. He instead identified corruption as a result of ineffective laws and proposed creating new ones and revising old ones to address the issue. The article also mentions that President Obama called to congratulate Karzai, and added that he hoped Karzai’s second term would be focused on strengthening the legitimacy of the Afghan government. Following the call, Obama told reporters that he hoped Karzai would begin to adopt and implement good governance practices for the well-being of Afghanistan. In addition, United States and European officials have stated that they would like Karzai to remove certain people from his government, declaring that some officials are “blatantly corrupt.” In addition, BBC News reports that Karzai also stated that he hopes to work towards the unification of all the Afghani people, including the Taliban. However, the Taliban have called Karzai a “puppet” of the United States and declared that they would continue their fight.

Sources:
CNN - Karzai calls for unity, end to corruption in Afghanistan
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/03/afghanistan.karzai/index.html

BBC News - Karzai vows to battle corruption
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8339369.stm

The New York Times - Karzai Vows Corruption Fight, but Avoids Details
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/asia/04afghan.html?ref=world

The Washington Post - In Kabul, a collective sigh of relief
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110203455.htm