Abdullah Calls for Criminal Investigation into Afghan Poll Fraud

Top Opposition Candidate Accuses Karzai of 'Treason' Over Vote-Rigging

Days after the UN-backed Election Complaints Commission (ECC) determined that there was “clear and convincing evidence” of fraud on a massive scale in last month’s Afghan Presidential election, top opposition candidate and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah accused President Hamid Karzai of “treason” and called for a criminal investigation into the poll-rigging.

“The country will die because of this sort of thing,” Abdullah cautioned, “fraud is the extension of this corruption which prevailed in this system.”

Though Abdullah has repeatedly criticized the election result, this is the first time anyone in the opposition, let alone the leader, has proposed a criminal remedy for the pervasive fraud.

Although ballot stuffing to what Western officials are saying could be the tune of half a million votes would almost certainly net criminal charges in most nations, expectations in Afghanistan have gotten so low that the question recently has been if the Karzai campaign would have to face a run-off vote or if he’d simply be declared the winner outright.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.