Karzai Lauds Election as ‘Victory’ for Afghan People

Appearing on “Good Morning America” this morning, Afghan President Hamid Karzai lauded the August election as a “victory” for the Afghan people and claimed to be “angry” with international media coverage of the election. He also claimed to have “grave doubts” about the investigation by the Election Complaints Commission.

It became clear after the election that an enormous amount of fraud, chiefly to the benefit of Karzai, has occurred. At least 800 of the sites at which Karzai performed remarkably well existed only on paper, and evidence suggests that millions of fraudulent ballots were cast.

Despite the mounting evidence, the Obama Administration formally decided late last month that Karzai would remain in power no matter what the investigations revealed, and top UN official Peter Galbraith reports that he was ordered to cover up the extent of Karzai’s fraud by the mission chief, Kai Eide.

The UN’s Election Complaints Commission, which Karzai is expressing such concerns about, announced only last week new rules governing its recount that would virtually ensure that no level of fraud would force Karzai to endure a second round of voting.