They’ve been profoundly corrupt and often meant little, but Afghanistan’s elections have long been enough to provide the illusion of a functioning democracy. The Trump Administration is in ongoing discussions on maybe backing away from that.
The Wall Street Journal reported ongoing discussions are being held at the behest of US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has been pushing the idea of telling the Afghan government to simply indefinitely suspend the presidential election, which is supposed to happen in April.
The US interest in this plan is apparently centered on the attempts to negotiate with the Taliban on settling the ongoing war, with officials, including Khalilzad, believing that such negotiations would be too hard in the middle of a nationwide election.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is opposed to the idea, saying he considers suspending elections unacceptable, and wants to see continuity in the Afghan democracy. Though theoretically this is the Afghan government’s call, and not the Trump Administration’s, officials believe that the US can use its funding of the Afghan government to virtually compel them to abandon elections at will.
Where this would leave Afghanistan is anyone’s guess, as even if it did please the Taliban during negotiations, having the US plainly cancel Afghanistan’s elections would also underscore the Taliban’s long-standing position that the government has no credibility of its own and is simply a US puppet.
Wouldn’t that be INTERFERING with their sacred democracy?
“US mulls” ? No one asked me…
We’ll interfere with the Afghan election process and blame it on the Russians!
And the US will sanction them, of course. That’s how a normal country acts.
“Presidential election” — that’s a good one. The last “presidential election” was fraudulent. The US just installed Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah as #1 and #2 US puppets. . .some background on Ghani
cnn
. . .and on Abdullah Abdullah, who suffered through a 20% bump-up in Ghani’s “vote”
wiki
Ah well It just allows reality to reassert itself. The election for the mayor of Kabul has always been a bit of a farce
Kabul, according to estimates, now comprises over four million people, about the size of the US’s second largest city, Los Angeles. I suspect that Ghani the anthropologist is not really up to governing four million people. And it’s growing rapidly, because of unsafe conditions in the countryside. More Lockheed Martin bombs are being dropped now, Making America Great Again, so thanks to the US of A, Kabul is the fifth fastest-growing city in the world.