Afghans Do Not Want A Runoff

Afghan President Hamid Karzai went on Good Morning America today to say that he felt the August 20 election was “good and free and democratic.” He managed to say this with a straight face, (under some sharp questioning by Diane Sawyer) despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

In a scene no one wants to repeat, Afghan men line up to vote on Aug. 20, at a Kabul polling station (photo by P.J.)

As repugnant as it is to write this, I think that it would just be best if everybody overlooked the fraud, let Karzai be president and get on with things in Afghanistan.

Because a runoff election is a logistical impossibility. It will take weeks just to print the ballots and by that time, parts of northern Afghanistan will be sealed in by snow. Forget people showing up to the polls, just getting election observers and paper ballots to some of these places will be completely unworkable.

This means that the election will have to wait until next spring and in the meantime, who will govern? Karzai?

“You think that Karzai’s government will last until the spring?” asks Muhammad Zubair Shafiqi, editor of Weesa Daily, a newspaper here. “If his government does last, and according to the Afghan constitution it can’t, it will take us from an electoral phase to an interim or transitional government.”

I have spoken to a few political leaders who favor just such an outcome, but average Afghans feel that they have largely done their part, and just want to put the whole mess behind them.

Muhammad Abas, a 45-year-old shop-keep from Nangrahar province says “My son and I risked our lives to vote, a bomb exploded near the polling station, but we voted. Now our vote should be respected.”

“We are tired of this situation,” says Sultan Hussain, 25, of Maiden Wardak. “Let us live peacefully…We voted once under many threats. We cannot bear the threats any longer. I don’t want my nose or finger to be cut.”

Hussain is referring to the Taliban practice of cutting off the finger or nose of anybody who possessed a voter card or who had been to a polling station.

Despite abysmal turnout for the election, many Afghans did risk their lives (and fingers and noses) to vote. I don’t think many did so under the illusion that the election would be particularly fair, but they wanted to at least attempt to have their voices heard.

Another runoff would be messy, unpopular, and likely kill what little appetite remains for the democratic process in this country. It’s not that Afghans don’t want democracy, I think mostly they do. But not if it has to be a never ending, life and death struggle that takes months (years?) to pan out.

UPDATE: The day after I posted this, the fabulous Sabrina Tavernese of The Times wrote a very similar story. Check it out for a (slightly) different perspective.