Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance
Abstract
The Afghan government's limited writ and widespread official corruption are helping sustain a Taliban insurgency, and have fed international pessimism about efforts to stabilize Afghanistan. At the same time, President Hamid Karzai has, through compromise with faction leaders, been able to confine ethnic disputes to political competition, enabling his government to focus on trying to win over those members of the ethnic Pashtun community who support the Taliban and other insurgents. Despite the measurable loss of confidence in Karzai, many Afghans consider their country's difficulties as beyond his control, and he still went into the Aug 20, 2009, election as the favorite. Turnout was lower than expected, and final but uncertified results, released Sept 16, 2009, showed him at 54.6%. Amid widespread charges of fraud, many substantiated by a U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission that investigated the charges, nearly one-third of Karzai's votes were invalidated and the certified result, released Oct 21, 2009, placed Karzai just short of the 50%+ total needed to avoid a second-round runoff. The runoff was scheduled for Nov 7, 2009, but, asserting that fraud was likely in the runoff, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's main challenger, dropped out of the race, and Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission declared Karzai the winner on Nov 2. The election issue has been a factor in a Sep-Nov 2009 Administration review of strategy, based on an assessment of the security situation furnished by the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. His report warned of potential mission failure unless a fully resourced classic counterinsurgency strategy is employed, and U.S. officials are concerned that any U.S. strategy requires a legitimate Afghan partner for implementation. Stabilizing Afghanistan requires winning Pashtun support for the Afghan government, and that could be predicated on the success of efforts to build effective local governing structures.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 02, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA511564
Entities
People
- Kenneth Katzman
Organizations
- Library of Congress