UN Boss in Kabul Denies Vote Fraud Cover-Up Charges

Kai Eide Struggles to Defend Neutrality

by Jason Ditz, October 08, 2009

UN Special Representative in Afghanistan Kai Eide today publicly condemned his former aide, former US Ambassador Peter Galbraith, saying that the growing concerns about the UN’s neutrality in the nation were the fault of Galbraith, not him, and saying the whole thing was a “distraction.”

Kai Eide

Galbraith was fired last week following a very public falling out with Eide over the UN Mission’s lack of candor regarding the massive fraud in the August presidential election. Following his ouster Galbraith insisted that not only was Eide bias in favor of Karzai, he had ordered members of his staff including Galbraith to cover up the extent of the fraud.

Eide confirmed that he ordered Galbraith and others not to share data about the election, but insisted it wasn’t because of any bias. The UN reportedly has evidence that as many as a third of all Karzai votes were fraudulent.

Yet no matter how much Eide protests his neutrality, this week’s revelation of new rules from the United Nations regarding how to handle vote fraud, which virtually guarantee a Karzai victory without a run-off vote, will continue to inflame tensions and raise speculation that Karzai’s victory was a product of international expediency more than legitimate popular support.

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