Analysts are increasingly concerned that as violence continues to rise Afghanistan’s August elections will be disrupted or at the very least overshadowed by the attacks. That concern was brought into even greater focus today when President Hamid Karzai’s running mate Mohammed Qasim Fahim narrowly averted assassination in an attack on his convoy.
Managing to hold relatively credible elections that aren’t completely riddled with violence would be important to the ability of the US to sell its ongoing mission in Afghanistan as something short of a complete, unmitigated disaster.
But rival candidates to Karzai, who polls had shown was unpopular but still leading in the face of a large number of relatively unknown candidates, are already preparing to accuse the elections of being fraudulent and say that only fraud would lead to a Karzai victory.
The US for its part has conceded that there will almost certainly be irregularities in the vote, with top US envoy Richard Holbrooke saying the goal was simply to “reflect the legitimate will of the Afghan people.” Holbrooke cited the disputed 2000 US Presidential Election as an example to show that Afghanistan should not be held to an unreasonable standard.
even if there is no violence what will be the crdibilty of afgan election .america armed afghanis to overthrow the sovet regime,later on it sacked taliban in 2001 and instaled its stooge karzai whose regime is thought as most corrupt. now huge offensive has been launched to prop up the corrupt govt. so the election has already lost its credility and if dostum is brought from turkey asthe news is circling in the media then another butcher will do what is left. can't these war criminals be taken to hague