Lee Sustar reports on the fraud and violence that swept Afghanistan during the August 20 presidential elections.
Socialist Worker, August 26, 2009
NATO soldiers on the scene of a bomb attack before elections in Afghanistan (Shah Marai | AFP)
AN ELECTION intended to showcase Afghanistan’s “emerging democracy” has instead exposed astonishing corruption, fraud and violence on the part of the U.S.-backed government.
Incumbent President Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah are each claming victory amid allegations of vote-rigging and fraud on both sides, with Abdullah’s supporters even hinting that his forces will take up arms if the election is stolen by Karzai.
by Malalai Joya | CommonDreams.org, Aug 18, 2009
Among the people on the street, a common sentiment is, ‘Everything has already been decided by the U.S. and NATO, and the real winner has already been picked by the White House and Pentagon.’ Although there are a total of 41 candidates running for president, the vast majority of them are well known faces responsible for the current disastrous situation in Afghanistan.
French philosopher and writer
Whatever happens from this point on, nothing will ever be the same in Tehran.
Whatever happens, if the protest gains momentum or loses steam, if it ends up prevailing or if the regime succeeds in terrorizing it, he who should now only be called president-non-elect Ahmadinejad will only be an ersatz, illegitimate, weakened president.
Whatever happens, whatever the result of this crisis provoked two weeks ago by the enormity of a fraud that serious-minded people can no longer doubt, no Iranian leader can appear on the global scene, or in any negotiation with Obama, Sarkozy, or Merkel, without being haloed, not by the nimbus of light dreamed of by Ahmadinejad in his 2005 speech to the United Nations, but by the cloud of sulphur that crowns cheaters and butchers.
| Al Jazeera, June 17, 2009 |
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Anti-government protesters appear set to keep up the pressure on the Iranian leadership, with a fifth day of rallies planned. The plan by the demonstrators to hold more protests on Wednesday comes a day after the Guardian Council, Iran’s highest legislative body, said that it was prepared for a partial recount of last week’s vote. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent president, was officially declared winner of Friday’s poll by a margin of two-to-one over his nearest rival Mir Hossein Mousavi. |
Kashmir Watch
Srinagar: Congress candidate for Ganderbal, had to face the public fury when people at Zakura disrupted his public rally by hurling stones at him and his party workers. Reports reaching PBI substantiate that Congress candidate Sheikh Ishfaq had to address an election rally at Zakura on Sunday afternoon. However, when he reached the venue, the local residents disrupted the rally by stoning the party activists who were accompanying Sheikh Ishfaq. This created a panic among the party workers and they retaliated the stone pelting by throwing stones and other things at the houses of local residents.
Sources told PBI that supporters of Sheikh also hurled stones at a mosque and as a result window panes of the mosque were broken. Eyewitnesses told PBI that the damage to the panes of mosque infuriated the entire population of the locality who came out of their homes and tried to attack the congress party workers along with their leader Sheikh Ishfaq.
However, Police and CRPF personnel, present at the time, safely removed Sheikh’s supporters from the spot.
Meanwhile, angry inhabitants of Dardasun Kralpora Kupwara, pelted stones at independent candidate for Kupwara assembly constituency, Shabnam Lone and her party workers when they tried to organize an election rally at Dardasun on Sunday. Shabnam had to take on heels from the spot.
Several party workers were reportedly injured. Three vehicles also suffered damage in the stone pelting. Later police arrested one person identified as Farooq Ahmad of Kralpora.
In another similar incident, Qaiser Jamshed Lone of NC faced public fury at Kalaroos when people disrupted his election rally by throwing stones at the participants of the rally. Qaisar escaped the spot under police cover.
Posted on 16 Nov 2008 by Webmaster
Peace and Justice Post 
Karzai was hellbent on victory. Afghans will pay the price
November 4, 2009The declaration of victory caps weeks of farce and failure, especially for the UN. To send more troops now would be a waste
Peter Galbraith, The Guardian/UK, Nov 3, 2009
Afghanistan’s presidential election is over, and it was a fiasco. The decision by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to cancel the second round and declare the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, the victor concludes a process that undermined Afghanistan‘s nascent democracy. In the US and Europe, the fraud-tainted elections halted the momentum for President Obama’s new Afghanistan strategy and undercut support for sending more troops.
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Tags:Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan, election, fraud, fraudulent votes, Hamid Karzai, Kai Eide, Peter Galbraith
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