A Blog by the Editor of The Middle East Journal

Putting Middle Eastern Events in Cultural and Historical Context

Friday, August 21, 2009

Uh Oh: Karzai Claiming Outright Win?

This overnight BBC report says Hamid Karzai is claiming that he not only won enough votes to win but that he has escaped the need for a runoff. That worries me. Yesterday I was reading reports that so many ballot boxes had to be brought to Kabul on donkey-back and such that there'd be no reliable numbers for one to two weeks. An overnight claim of outright victory? That worries me a little. Is he getting electoral count help from Ahmadinejad?

I expect Karzai will be re-elected, but I certainly hope it isn't blatantly manipulated. That hurts Karzai, hurts the US, and hurts stability in the region.

No comments: