The voting process in Afghanistan remains unresolved, with Abdullah Abdullah withdrawing from the audit process last week over complaints related to the massive amounts of ballot stuffing in the run-off vote.
The US had tried to obviate this concern by negotiating a power-sharing deal in which Abdullah and his opponent Ashraf Ghani would essentially split running the country down the middle. Over the weekend, the talks on that plan have collapsed as well.
Mohammed Mohaqeq, who would’ve been vice president if Abdullah had won the election, says that the process seems permanently stalemated, and that Ghani’s side has refused all demands since Abdullah left the audit process.
That’s because the reports have suggested the ballot stuffing was overwhelmingly on Ghani’s behalf, and he is widely expected to win with the audit process now effectively neutered. Ghani supporters have claimed they were assured the power-sharing deal wouldn’t be put into effect.
The situation is coming to a head one way or another, as President Karzai has promised to leave office on September 2, and there seems to be no chance of the election commission even finishing the audit by then, let alone appointing a winner.
I like the Afghan system.
Its much faster than the US.
Here we have to wait until after those elected take office to have them reach a stalemate, do nothing for voters, feather their own nests, look after their big donors and stir up the tribes to go for each others throats.