IEC - Max Forte on Diigo

31 Oct 09

With less than half as many election workers in Afghanistan's second round of voting, it may be even easier for "ghost" stations
to submit fake votes.
By Ben Arnoldy
| Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 29, 2009 edition
10 more annotations...
- New Delhi - Despite having fewer poll workers and a declining security situation, Afghanistan's election commission announced Thursday
  it would increase the number of polling centers for the presidential runoff.
- The first round of voting, on Aug. 20, saw between 6,167 and 6,306 centers open. For the Nov. 7 runoff the Independent Election
  Commission says it will open 6,322.
- The decision comes as a surprise since a number of "ghost" polling centers were never
  opened to the public or to monitors, yet sent fraudulent voter tallies back to Kabul.
- President Hamid Karzai's runoff rival, Abdullah Abdullah, has unsuccessfully called on the IEC to provide a list of ghost
  stations and remove them from the ranks of runoff centers.
- When it comes to the credibility of the result, the decision may indicate that the IEC is more concerned about turnout than
  Abdullah quitting or fraud reoccurring.
- IEC, and some its own workers were judged by an independent complaints panel to have helped Karzai during the election.
- Peter Galbraith, an American who was fired from the panel after complaining that it had covered up fraud, slammed the IEC
  in an opinion piece in the New York Times this week. "The United Nations must stop pretending that the commission is anything
  other than a pro-Karzai institution," he wrote.
- Some view the IEC decision in stark terms: "This is to enable them to fill up the boxes with fake ballots as much as they
  want," says Fahim Dashty, editor of the Kabul Weekly newspaper.
- There will, in fact, be fewer poll workers: 60,000, compared to 165,000 in the first round.
- The Taliban, however, pulled off hundreds of attacks across Afghanistan on Aug. 20 – with fewer centers as targets and more time for NATO and Afghan forces to prepare. And the
  security environment has not showed signs of improvement, as highlighted by a deadly attack on UN workers in the heart of
  Kabul Wednesday.

Rejecting U.N. advice, Afghan panel to open 6,300 polls in runoff - washingtonpost.com

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009102902468.html - Preview

Afghanistan election runoff fraud UN IEC

Officials to open more polling stations than experts think is safe
By Pamela Constable

Friday, October 30, 2009
9 more annotations...
- KABUL -- Rejecting advice from U.N. officials, Afghanistan's election commission announced Thursday that it would open more than 6,300 polling centers for the upcoming runoff vote, far more than international experts here say can be adequately protected and monitored.
- The announcement surprised U.N. officials, who had recommended that only about 5,800 voting centers be opened because of the danger of insurgent attacks in some areas, the likelihood of fraud in others and the short time available to prepare and staff the Nov. 7 presidential election.
- did not say how they would be able to staff all of them and still fulfill their pledge to get rid of hundreds of polling officials accused of fraud in the original Aug. 20 election.
- The election panel said it would close 11 voting stations in five provinces because they were vulnerable to insurgent attacks or because of approaching winter weather in mountainous regions.
- U.N. sources, however, suggested that the commissioners might be adding stations to maximize votes for Karzai, who appointed them. This dispute threatens to revive the tensions that erupted in September between the Afghan election panel and a U.N.-appointed commission that oversaw the investigation into fraud in the first round of balloting.
- Early Wednesday, a heavily armed Taliban suicide squad invaded a U.N. guesthouse in Kabul, killing five international staffers and three Afghans before the attackers were killed by Afghan security forces.
- The apparent target of the attack was a group of U.N. election workers who were staying in the house, and Taliban officials warned that they would carry out further attacks to disrupt the poll.
- Nevertheless, with the runoff only nine days away, most foreign U.N. staffers have been confined to their lodgings, costing them valuable time. Officials said that restriction will remain in effect for several days. Moreover, about 20 election workers who survived the attack, including some who were injured, are being flown out of the country Friday.
- "Our election support operations are still going on, but for all the U.N. agencies here, it is definitely not business as usual," said Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the U.N. mission.

27 Oct 09

DEA agents among 14 Americans dead in Afghanistan - AP

news.yahoo.com/...as_afghanistan - Preview

Afghanistan election Taliban IEC Karzai Abdullah Koran

KABUL – A U.S. military helicopter crashed Monday while returning from the scene of a firefight with suspected Taliban drug traffickers in western Afghanistan, killing 10 Americans including three DEA agents in a not-so-noticed war within a war.
Four more troops were killed when two helicopters collided over southern Afghanistan, making it the deadliest day for U.S. forces in this country in more than four years.
4 more annotations...
- the Taliban claimed they shot down a U.S. helicopter in the western province of Badghis. The U.S. did not say where in western Afghanistan its helicopter went down, and no other aircraft were reported missing.
- U.S. forces also reported the deaths of two other American service members Sunday: one in a bomb attack in the east, and another who died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack in the same region. The deaths bring to at least 47 the number of U.S. service members who have been killed in October.
- Lodin said the commission hopes to open all 23,960 polling stations from the first round. The U.N. wants to open only 16,000 stations to cut down on the number of "ghost polling stations" that never opened but were used to stuff ballot boxes.
- Meanwhile, security forces in Kabul fired automatic rifles into the air for a second day Monday to contain hundreds of stone-throwing university students angered over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book, the Quran, by U.S. troops during an operation two weeks ago in Wardak province. Fire trucks were also brought in to push back protesters with water cannons. Police said several officers were injured in the mayhem.
  
  U.S. and Afghan authorities have denied any such desecration and insist that the Taliban are spreading the rumor to stir up public anger. The rumor has sparked similar protests in Wardak and Khost provinces.

Karzai dismisses election rival's ultimatum - Reuters

news.yahoo.com/...us_afghanistan - Preview

Afghanistan election runoff Karzai Abdullah IEC Kerry

Golnar Motevalli and Ahmed Masood Golnar Motevalli And Ahmed Masood

–
Mon Oct 26
KABUL (Reuters) –
Afghan president Hamid Karzai rejected a demand from his rival in a presidential run-off to dismiss the country's top election official, setting the stage for a new confrontation.
11 more annotations...
- demanded that the head of the Independent Election Commission be fired because he was biased toward Karzai. Abdullah also wanted three cabinet ministers suspended until the election was completed.
- Abdullah gave the authorities until Saturday to dismiss election chief Azizullah Ludin, but refused to say what he would do if this demand was not met.
- "We will wait for the commission's reply until October 31 and until then we suspend all of our relations with the commission," he told reporters at his house in Kabul.
- Abdullah's ultimatum fueled speculation that he may pull out of the election, the first round of which was mired by allegations of widespread fraud, most leveled at Karzai.
- in Washington, Senator John Kerry challenged the image among some in the United States of Afghan President Hamid Karzai as a corrupt, weak leader, saying he was a patriot who understood there must be changes among his ministers.
  
  "The fact is that this man, I believe, is a patriot ... He has a commitment to this," said Kerry, who returned last week from Afghanistan where he helped convince Karzai to participate in the run-off election.
- A Western diplomat in Kabul said Abdullah's demands for the removal of Ludin, who has been accused of being partial to Karzai, were "completely reasonable."
- But Ludin told Reuters he would not stand down.
- "No, why should I resign?" Ludin said when asked to respond to Abdullah's demands. "I don't know if the constitution gives (Abdullah) authority to ask of such a thing."
- Underscoring many Afghans' unease with the presence of foreign forces, hundreds of people gathered in central Kabul on Monday chanting "Down with America," throwing stones and clashing with police while protesting against what they said was the desecration of a copy of the Koran by foreign troops.
- For the second consecutive day, police fired into the air to break up the crowd as protesters prepared to set fire to a crudely made effigy of Obama outside the parliament building.
- Protesters say NATO forces burned a copy of Islam's holiest book during a raid in eastern Afghanistan last week. The NATO-led force in Afghanistan has denied any involvement and blamed the Taliban for spreading false rumors.

24 Oct 09

Taliban call for Afghans to boycott runoff poll - AP

news.yahoo.com/...as_afghanistan - Preview

Afghanistan election runoff fraud IEC Taliban

Taliban militants threatened Afghans with violence Saturday if they vote in the Nov. 7 runoff presidential election, as President Hamid Karzai's campaign ruled out any power-sharing deal to avoid another ballot.
Supporters of Karzai's challenger, meanwhile, urged the country's top three election officials to step down — alleging they were involved in rigging the first round of fraud-marred voting in August and should not be responsible for organizing the upcoming vote.
10 more annotations...
- They said fighters would "launch operations against the enemy and stop people from taking part" in the election, warning that anyone who casts a ballot "will bear responsibility for their actions."
- American commanders say the Afghans will bear the primary responsibility, with U.S. and NATO forces advising and standing by in case they're needed.
- Taliban threats kept thousands of people at home in August, helping push turnout below 40 percent. Officials fear even lower turnout this time, raising questions about the new president's mandate no matter who wins.
- "We're sure that the elections will take place successfully, but because of the Taliban threats a minority of the people will go out and vote," said Abdul Hadi, election chief in Helmand province, where Taliban influence is strong. "I ask the people to participate at the elections."
- Some Obama administration officials had hoped Karzai and Abdullah could cut a power-sharing deal to avoid a costly and risky runoff, although such talk has faded in recent days.
- Senior Abdullah campaign officials on Saturday accused the top three members of Afghan commission of bias and complicity in fraud, saying they should be replaced to ensure the upcoming runoff is fair.
  
  They singled out election commission chairman Azizullah Lodin, chief electoral officer Daoud Ali Najafi and the commission's deputy director, Zekria Barakzai. Abdullah's running mate, Homayoun Assefy, said the three were "openly working for Mr. Karzai" and should resign.
- "It is impossible. Everything has been set up already according to the constitution, according to electoral law, and they will continue their work," Noor told The Associated Press. "Karzai doesn't have the right to replace them, and neither does Abdullah."
- Also Saturday, NATO announced that two Americans and one service member whose nationality was withheld were killed in separate bombings in the south. That brought to 32 the number of U.S. troops killed this month,
- Meanwhile, U.S. and Afghan officials said American troops killed four civilians when they fired on a van approaching their convoy on the main highway in southern Kandahar province. The dead included two women and one child, Kandahar's governor said in a statement. Four others were wounded.
- The troops "tried repeatedly to signal the fast-approaching vehicle with passive measures, but fearing for their safety, fired on the vehicle," said U.S. military spokesman Lt. j.g. Tommy Groves.

19 Oct 09

Election Audit Said to Show Karzai Has 48 Percent - NYTimes.com

www.nytimes.com/...20afghan.html - Preview

Afghanistan election Karzai runoff Kerry IEC ECC

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Published: October 19, 2009
A special audit committee submitted its election fraud findings after a lengthy investigation Monday, and a Western official familiar with them said they appeared likely to show that President Hamid Karzai had won about 48 percent
8 more annotations...
- The auditors did not immediately publicize their conclusions, which they handed to the independent election committee that will announce the final results.
- The report caps more than nine weeks of waiting and may bestow a greater legitimacy on the government that eventually emerges, something the United States has strongly urged.
- Mr. Karzai’s campaign officials have complained about the work of the five-member panel, saying that foreigners were unfairly influencing its outcome. And Mr. Karzai himself indicated this weekend that he might oppose the results, setting off a flurry of last-minute diplomacy by western officials.
- Mr. Karzai could use his influence over the Independent Election Commission, the Afghan body that will certify Monday’s results, to reject the findings.
- That would pitch Afghanistan into a constitutional crisis just as the Obama administration is trying to make a decision on whether to send more troops here to halt the Taliban’s advance in the country’s deepening war.
- One Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Mr. Karzai seemed to be accepting the result, and that he had given up his weekend attempts to question it.
- He added that foreign officials were treating the issue gently late last week, but “in the last 72 hours, I think even Karzai got the message.”
- About 3,000 people gathered in a market in the district of Spin Boldak, shouting, “We don’t want foreigners to interfere in our election,” a complaint frequently offered by his campaign.

Afghan fraud panel voids thousands of Karzai votes - AP

news.yahoo.com/...as_afghanistan - Preview

Afghanistan election Karzai fraud Obama surge IEC ECC runoff

Fraud investigators threw out hundreds of thousands of votes for President Hamid Karzai in the country's disputed August election, according to a report released Monday. The findings set the stage for a runoff between him and his top challenger.
It was unclear, however, whether the Independent Election Commission would accept the findings of the U.N.-backed fraud panel and announce a runoff. Karzai's spokesman said it was too soon to make a judgment based on the figures released by the panel.
8 more annotations...
- Two international officials familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that the findings showed Karzai falling below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff with his chief rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
- "I don't think we can make any judgment based on the figures announced today," Karzai campaign spokesman Waheed Omar said.
- That has raised fears that the Karzai-influenced election commission may refuse to call for a runoff — further delaying formation of a government that the U.S. believes is needed to help combat the growing Taliban insurgency.
- A protracted crisis could also lead to political unrest. Hundreds of Karzai supporters protested in the south over the weekend, calling for the electoral commission to release results quickly and saying they will reject a second round.
- Ali Shah Khan, a tribal leader from the area, said the protesters believed the August vote was fair and that foreigners were delaying the results to unseat Karzai.
  
  "We know they don't want President Karzai because he is a strong leader and he is working only for the people of Afghanistan," Khan said. "The foreign countries want a weak leader for Afghanistan. After that they can do whatever they want."
- The White House says President Barack Obama will not send more U.S. troops until a credible government is in place.
- Abdullah campaign spokesman Fazel Sancharaki said the U.N.-backed panel "is under threat" from Karzai. He alleged the president was urging the election commission not to accept the results of the fraud probe.
  
  "He's telling them not to accept the findings if they show less than 50 percent for him. That's why the IEC is not accepting the final report," he said. "There is no end to this misery. Negotiations are still going on, but there is no agreement."
- On Monday, Taliban militants set fire to 15 trucks carrying supplies to a military base in eastern Ghazni province, according to local official Sahib Khan. Afghan security guards killed two militants during the fighting.

18 Oct 09

France to Afghan rivals: Accept election results - AP

news.yahoo.com/...as_afghanistan - Preview

Afghanistan election fraud runoff IEC ECC Kouchner Clinton Ban_Ki_Moon Kerry Karzai

TODD PITMAN and HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writers Todd Pitman And Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writers

–
Sun Oct 18
France's foreign minister urged Afghanistan's political rivals Sunday to accept the findings of a fraud investigation that could force a runoff vote in the country's disputed presidential election.
12 more annotations...
- A U.N.-backed panel investigating fraud claims was due to issue findings last week, but the announcement has been repeatedly delayed.
- As reports made a runoff sound increasingly likely, a flurry of diplomats and dignitaries have called or visited Karzai. People familiar with the talks said they pressed Karzai to accept rulings mandating a runoff, but that the president refused to make any such commitment until the fraud decisions were announced.
- Top challenger Abdullah Abdullah has said he has faith in the process, but he also will wait to see the figures before commenting.
- Both Karzai and Abdullah say they expect the panel to rule in their favor.
- The fraud panel's rulings have been delayed by two days of discussions with Afghan election officials to clarify the methods used to decide which votes were fraudulent, according to several people familiar with the meetings.
- The prolonged debate raises questions about the willingness of the Independent Election Commission, whose officers are appointed by Karzai, to accept a result that will reportedly require a runoff.
- Afghan law declares the U.N.-dominated Electoral Complaints Commission the final arbiter on fraud allegations. However, members of the Independent Election Commission, which has the authority to order a runoff, have argued that some of the investigations are outside the normal complaint process and that the fraud panel does not have the final say.
- threatens the legitimacy of the Afghan government and the future of the U.S.-led military mission
- The U.S. effort is already troubled by a spike in deaths that has damaged public support for the war at home. In the latest violence, an American service member was killed by a bomb attack in the south Sunday, the military reported.
- Fearing the political crisis will worsen, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown telephoned both Karzai and Abdullah in recent days to express concern.
- U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
- "I don't see how President Obama can make a decision about the committing of our additional forces or even the further fulfillment of our mission that's here today without an adequate government in place or knowledge about what that government's going to be," he told CBS.

"Brick Wall" Feared in Afghan Election - washingtonpost.com

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009101701371.html - Preview

Afghanistan election Karzai IEC runoff recount

09 Oct 09

What the preliminary provincial results in Kabul tell us | The AfPak Channel

afpak.foreignpolicy.com/...afghanistans_other_election - Preview

Afghanistan election IEC results fraud provincial_elections

10/09/2009
By Martine van Bijlert
7 more annotations...
- the struggle for a fair outcome in the provincial council
  elections in Afghanistan
  continues
- The competition was more localized and the level of organization of the
  fraud more limited than in the presidential election, but the margins needed to
  win were also much smaller
- The list of allegations is by now familiar: various forms of
  ballot stuffing on polling day, manipulation of the local count, tampering with
  result sheets, and manipulation during data entry and tallying.
- An analysis of the results posted on the Independent
  Election Commission website, focusing on unusual or implausible vote patterns,
  provides some clear clues on how -- and in some cases at what stage -- the
  manipulation took place.
- In polling center 101062 (Suraya Girl's School in Taimani) candidate numbers
  373 and 447 received the following number of votes in the center's twelve
  polling stations:
  
  373: 185 / 205 / 205 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 1
  
  447: 115 / 95 / 95 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
- Note how the votes of the two candidates add up to round numbers (300 / 200 /
  200) and how they have virtually no votes in the other stations.
- The vote pattern indicates that a real vote
  took place in this polling center, but that the polling staff at three stations
  was recruited to cast extra votes for the two candidates and that they have
  done so by dividing two or three books of 100 ballots between the two
  candidates per station.

IEC - 2009 Election Results

www.iec.org.af/index.html - Preview

Afghanistan election IEC results

06 Oct 09

This Fraud Is On You: The 2009 Afghan Elections and the U.N. Cover Up « OPEN ANTHROPOLOGY

openanthropology.wordpress.com/...elections-and-the-u-n-cover-up - Preview

Afghanistan fraud election Galbraith Eide ECC IEC karzai Ban_Ki_Moon

Peter W. Galbraith -- U.N. Isn't Addressing Fraud in Afghan Election - washingtonpost.com

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009100202855.html - Preview

Afghanistan fraud election Galbraith Eide ECC IEC karzai Ban_Ki_Moon

Before firing me last week from my post as his deputy special representative in Afghanistan, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon conveyed one last instruction: Do not talk to the press. In effect, I was being told to remain a team player after being thrown off the team. Nonetheless, I agreed.
I asked only that the statement announcing my dismissal reflect the real reasons
29 more annotations...
- Alain LeRoy, the head of U.N. peacekeeping and my immediate superior in New York, proposed that the United Nations say I was being recalled over a "disagreement as to how the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) would respond to electoral fraud." Although this was not entirely accurate -- the dispute was really about whether the U.N. mission would respond to the massive electoral fraud -- I agreed.
- Instead, the United Nations announced my recall as occurring "in the best interests of the mission," and U.N. press officials told reporters on background that my firing was necessitated by a "personality clash" with Eide, a friend of 15 years who had introduced me to my future wife.
- For weeks, Eide had been denying or playing down the fraud in Afghanistan's recent presidential election, telling me he was concerned that even discussing the fraud might inflame tensions in the country.
- But in my view, the fraud was a fact that the United Nations had to acknowledge or risk losing its credibility with the many Afghans who did not support President Hamid Karzai.
- I also felt loyal to my U.N. colleagues who worked in a dangerous environment to help Afghans hold honest elections -- at least five of whom have now told me they are leaving jobs they love in disgust over the events leading to my firing.
- As many as 30 percent of Karzai's votes were fraudulent, and lesser fraud was committed on behalf of other candidates.
- In several provinces, including Kandahar, four to 10 times as many votes were recorded as voters actually cast.
- The fraud has handed the Taliban its greatest strategic victory in eight years of fighting the United States and its Afghan partners.
- The election was a foreseeable train wreck.
- this balloting was managed by Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC). Despite its name, the commission is subservient to Karzai, who appointed its seven members
- The United States and other Western nations paid the more than $300 million to hold the vote
- In July, I learned that at least 1,500 polling centers (out of 7,000) were to be located in places so insecure that no one from the IEC, the Afghan National Army or the Afghan National Police had ever visited them.
- Local commission staff members were hardly experienced election professionals; in many instances they were simply agents of the local power brokers, usually aligned with Karzai.
- If no independent observers or candidate representatives, let alone voters, could even visit the listed location of a polling center, these IEC staffers could easily stuff ballot boxes without ever taking them to the assigned location. Or they could simply report results without any votes being in the ballot boxes.
- Along with ambassadors from the United States and key allies, I met with the Afghan ministers of defense and the interior as well as the commission's chief election officer. We urged them either to produce a credible plan to secure these polling centers (which the head of the Afghan army had told me was impossible) or to close them down. Not surprisingly, the ministers -- who served a president benefiting from the fraud -- complained that I had even raised the matter.
- Eide ordered me not to discuss the ghost polling centers any further.
- On Election Day, these sites produced hundreds of thousands of phony Karzai votes.
- At other critical stages in the election process, I was similarly ordered not to pursue the issue of fraud.
- My staff collected evidence on hundreds of cases of fraud around the country and, more important, gathered information on turnout in key southern provinces where few voters showed up but large numbers of votes were being reported.
- Eide ordered us not to share this data with anyone, including the Electoral Complaints Commission, a U.N.-backed Afghan institution legally mandated to investigate fraud.
- Naturally, my colleagues wondered why they had taken the risks to collect this evidence if it was not to be used.
- In early September, I got word that the IEC was about to abandon its published anti-fraud policies, allowing it to include enough fraudulent votes in the final tally to put Karzai over the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.
- After I called the chief electoral officer to urge him to stick with the original guidelines, Karzai issued a formal protest accusing me of foreign interference. My boss sided with Karzai.
- If the Tajiks believe that fraud denied their candidate the chance to compete in a second round, they may respond by simply not recognizing the authority of the central government. The north already has de facto autonomy; these elections could add an ethnic fault line to a conflict between the Taliban and the government that to date has largely been a civil war among Pashtuns.
- Since my disagreements with Eide went public, Eide and his supporters have argued that the United Nations had no mandate to interfere in the Afghan electoral process. This is not technically correct.
- The U.N. Security Council directed the U.N. mission to support Afghanistan's electoral institutions in holding a "free, fair and transparent" vote, not a fraudulent one.
- And with so much at stake -- and with more than 100,000 U.S. and coalition troops deployed in the country -- the international community had an obvious interest in ensuring that Afghanistan's election did not make the situation worse.
- President Obama needs a legitimate Afghan partner to make any new strategy for the country work. However, the extensive fraud that took place on Aug. 20 virtually guarantees that a government emerging from the tainted vote will not be credible with many Afghans.
- Afghanistan's pro-Karzai election commission will not do this on its own. Fixing those problems will require resolve from the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan -- a quality that so far has been lacking.

Fired UN envoy claims third of Hamid Karzai votes fraudulent | World news | The Guardian

www.guardian.co.uk/...y-galbraith-afghanistan-karzai - Preview

Afghanistan fraud election Galbraith Eide ECC IEC karzai Ban_Ki_Moon

guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 4 October 2009
12 more annotations...
- Peter Galbraith accused his former chief at the UN, Kai Eide, of deliberately playing down the level of cheating in the election. Photograph: Toby Talbot/Associated Press
- A former senior United Nations diplomat in Kabul has made a scathing attack on the UN's handling of Afghanistan's disputed elections, claiming that almost one in three of the votes cast for president Hamid Karzai were fraudulent.
- Peter Galbraith, the former deputy head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, singled out his former chief, Kai Eide, for criticism, saying he had deliberately played down the level of cheating in an election where, in one region, "10 times as many votes were recorded as voters actually cast".
- Galbraith was sacked last week, after his disagreements with Eide, a Norwegian diplomat in charge of the UN mission, about how to deal with electoral fraud became public.
- Galbraith said the extraordinary level of fraud in the August vote "has handed the Taliban its greatest strategic victory in eight years of fighting the United States and its Afghan partners".
- The election was a "foreseeable train wreck", he said, with Eide standing idle as Afghan election authorities and ministers loyal to the president avoided taking steps that could have reduced massive fraud.
- On Saturday Abdullah accused Eide of "giving a green card for fraud to determine the outcome of the election".
- In a letter to Ban, leaked to the New York Times, Galbraith made devastating allegations against Eide, including the claim that the latter ordered him not to hand to election officials information which showed turnout had been tiny in the south, where the Taliban intimidation campaign against voters was most effective.
- Galbraith also said Eide told him to stop lobbying for the elimination of "ghost polling stations" — voting centres too dangerous to actually open, but which nonetheless received ballot papers that could be filled out by corrupt officials.
- Galbraith writes: "President Obama needs a legitimate Afghan partner to make any new strategy for the country work. However, the extensive fraud that took place on August 20 virtually guarantees that a government emerging from the tainted vote will not be credible with many Afghans."
- In his earlier letter to Ban, Galbraith also claimed Eide prevented him trying to stop the independent election commission, in overall charge of the vote, from abandoning its safeguards, which would have excluded fraudulent ballots, probably reducing Karzai's score to below 50%, forcing a second-round vote.
- Eide told him to back off, Galbraith said, after Karzai ordered his foreign minister to protest that the American was interfering in Afghan affairs. He said the Afghan government threatened him with expulsion.

The UN has abandoned democracy

www.ottawacitizen.com/...story.html - Preview

Afghanistan fraud election Galbraith Eide ECC IEC Ban_Ki_Moon costs

The firing of its No. 2 official in Afghanistan shows how far the world body will go to cover up the fraudulent August election
The United Nations and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have just made a mockery of the notion of free and fair elections by firing Peter Galbraith, the second-in-command at the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
15 more annotations...
- Galbraith, responsible for political affairs and elections at the UNAMA, wanted a full investigation of the alleged irregularities and fraud in the August Afghanistan election. The UN staff observers supported such allegations, along with the EU Observation Mission, which considers close to 1.5 million out of five million votes cast to be fraudulent
- Galbraith demanded a fuller recount, rather than a sample recount of votes that the Election Complaints Commission and the Independent Election Commission in Kabul decided to undertake.
- It has been alleged that the Independent Election commission is not "independent" enough and the Complaints Commission is a UN-appointed body
- It seems Galbraith's boss, Kai Eide, the special representative of the secretary general at UNAMA in Kabul, wanted a coverup of the fraud, as a full investigation would tell the tale of the failure of his own leadership representing the UN -- the overseer of the election on behalf of the international community.
- Excerpts of the letter (published in the New York Times) that Galbraith wrote to Ban Ki-moon, clearly state that the special representative of the secretary general did not want western diplomats to know about the extent of the fraud.
- The fear is that addressing the spirit of a free and fair election now might further weaken governance and destabilize the country, and bring international failure in Afghanistan more starkly out in the open. Thus, the UN wants a compromise.
- It is suggested Afghanistan does not need a true election, it has never had a democracy.
- A sham of an election as a "start" is considered good enough for Afghans, who after all know no better. It seems protecting the image of the UN is the priority.
- The UN action is damaging to the very concept of democracy. The UN has failed to retain its neutrality in this election to protect its own interest. It has violated the accountability principle.
- The western nations funded the election with more than $220 million provided through the UN.
- The UNAMA has violated the trust of the international community, which includes the tax-paying public of the countries that contributed to this pool of funds.
- The Independent Election Commission, financed through international aid funds, is a failed institution.
- It would be interesting to see how our own government explains to the Canadian public the objective of our mission in Afghanistan at this point.
- Does the election fiasco affect our Afghanistan mission objectives (which remain muddled at best, in any case); and how do we accommodate addressing Canadian values while we're in Afghanistan, one of our foreign policy objectives?
- Or do we simply join the UN "cover-up" process, undermining not only Canadian values and democratic principles but the Afghan population, which deserves a legitimate government confirmed through an open, free and fair process of election?

30 Sep 09

UN official ousted after Afghan vote fraud dispute - AP

news.yahoo.com/...as_afghanistan - Preview

Afghanistan election UN Galbraith fraud IEC Ban_Ki_Moon

The top American official at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan is losing his job after he disagreed with superiors over how to deal with widespread fraud charges from the presidential election, people familiar with the decision said Wednesday.
Two U.N. officials confirmed that Galbraith was being recalled by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from his job as deputy special representative for Afghanistan.
1 more annotations...
- Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission, which is in charge of running the election, voted overwhelmingly to apply a set of fraud standards to their count that likely would have excluded tens of thousands of votes, only to reverse the decision next day, saying it lacked the authority to enforce the standards, said Galbraith, who had advised the commission. He said at the time the reversal was part of his reason for leaving.

28 Sep 09

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Flaws overshadow Afghan outcome

news.bbc.co.uk/...8252294.stm - Preview

Afghanistan election fraud IEC ECC

With more than 90% of the votes counted in the Afghan election, President Hamid Karzai has secured more than 50% of the poll, and can expect to remain in power without facing a second round of voting.
But thousands of allegations of fraud are still being investigated amid growing international concern, particularly among those nations whose troops are currently fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
6 more annotations...
- Violations included the registration of underage voters, registration of people from a list who did not attend in person, and lack of impartiality.
- Irregularities witnessed by observers on polling day included ballot boxes that were already full as the polls opened, a higher number of votes than voters registered, and districts where there were an even number of votes, usually 500, in each ballot box.
- votes had been counted from polling stations that were known to have been closed on 20 August - for security or other reasons.
- Meanwhile, the Electoral Complaints Commission, an oversight body with a majority of internationally appointed members, has ordered an audit of the whole election.
- It wants a recount where there was a 100% turnout or more than 95% of votes for one candidate. This could take up to two months.
- But in a sign of growing tension between the Afghan-led Independent Election Commission, and the international-led Electoral Complaints Commission, the order was rejected when initially sent earlier in the week, in a row over translation.

UN chief Peter Galbraith is removed in Afghanistan poll clash - Times Online

www.timesonline.co.uk/...article6834487.ece - Preview

Afghanistan election fraud IEC ECC Eide Galbraith UN

America’s top diplomat at the United Nations mission in Afghanistan has been
ordered out of the country after a row with his boss over how to respond to
last month’s fraud-riddled presidential elections, it has been alleged.
The alleged quarrel is threatening to spark a mutiny within the UN mission. At
least a dozen senior staff are backing the American, Peter Galbraith, in the
dispute with his Norwegian superior, Kai Eide.
10 more annotations...
- Mr Galbraith, a close friend of the US special envoy Richard Holbrooke, left
  for Boston on Sunday after a heated meeting with Afghan election officials.
  His “pointed” questions to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) were
  evidence of a much tougher line towards the Afghan authorities than the
  “softly-softly” approach of Mr Eide, who heads the UN mission to Kabul.
- “The relationship between Kai and Peter has completely broken down,” said a
  diplomat in Kabul. “Peter has left the country. The official line is that
  he’s on a three-week mission to New York. But Kai just turned round to Peter
  and said, ‘I want you out’.”
- The apparent row illustrates the deepening divisions within the international
  community on whether to allow President Karzai to claim re-election in the
  flawed presidential poll.
- Mr Galbraith wants the IEC to annul results from 1,000 of the total of about
  6,500 polling stations and to recount results from another 5,000, diplomatic
  sources said. Mr Eide, a former UN envoy in Bosnia, seeks only a face-saving
  recount of some 1,000 polling places, the sources said.
- Mr Galbraith’s wholesale recount would virtually ensure a second round in the
  election, denying Mr Karzai his claimed first-round victory.
- Mr Eide’s solution would probably enable Mr Karzai to claim victory, although
  with a reduced margin.
- Mr Eide introduced Mr Galbraith to the Norwegian
  anthropologist who became his wife
- The row worsened when Mr Eide left Afghanistan to celebrate his wedding
  anniversary in Norway after the election and refused to cut short his break
  despite the fraud allegations.
- Mr Eide, now back in Kabul, has urged his staff not to speak out against the
  fraud because he fears that it will destabilise efforts to build a
  democracy. He is also afraid that fraud investigations will be seen as
  foreign interference, because three of the five people in charge of the
  Election Complaints Commission are UN appointees.
- “The one thing the UN should be doing, which it’s not doing, is speaking up on
  election fraud,” said a mission insider. “A lot of people in the UN feel
  that unless there’s space for someone to behave as Peter has behaved, then
  what are we doing here?”

The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) / Blogs / Thomas Ruttig

aan-afghanistan.com/index.asp - Preview

Afghanistan election fraud Karzai IEC ECC Holbrooke EU UN UNAMA

What remained of a democratic process in Afghanistan had been brought to a halt with screeching brakes by the massive and systematic fraud on 20 August.
The range of fraud clearly has implications both on the outcome of the election and on its legitimacy, both in the eyes of the Afghan voters and the international community
13 more annotations...
- The political chief analyst of the EU observer mission, former German ambassador Gunter Mulack, states that fraud in the range of around 5 per cent of the vote would be 'acceptable' in countries like Afghanistan, but beyond the 10 per cent threshold it ‘puts the election in doubt’. Most figures given on the 20 August vote are far beyond this threshold.
- A ‘senior Western diplomat’ in Afghanistan was quoted as saying that about 800 ‘fake poll sites’ (not specified whether polling stations, i.e. ballot boxes, or polling centres) did not open on election-day but delivered ballots into the counting process and, ‘besides’, that Karzai supporters took over ‘approximately [other] 800 legitimate polling centers and us[ing] them to fraudulently report tens of thousands of additional ballots for Mr. Karzai’. The same source gives 350,000 votes counted for Kandahar province while only estimated 25,000 votes had been really casts there – this is a fraud surplus of 325,000 alone in one province (see: Dexter Filkins and Carlotta Gall, ‘Fake Afghan Poll Sites Favored Karzai, Officials Assert’, New York Times, 6 Sept 2009).
- Suspiciously, we still have not been told by the IEC how many polling stations were open on 20 August.
- If we took the IEC turn-out figure of 6 million for real, the 1.5 million votes called ‘suspicious’ by the EU observers would represent 25 per cent.
- Sources close to the President admitted off the records that there might have been no more than 2 – 2.5 million real votes.
- After the EU Observer mission’s initially very weak statements that tried to paint the picture of a flourishing Afghan democracy – echoing what it obviously perceived to be the view preferred by most of the EU member-state governments at this point of time - the EU foreign ministers have taken a strong position now. In their meeting on 15 September they demanded that the fraud allegations ‘must all be dealt with’ and expressed their hope ‘that it will result in an election result seen as credible by the Afghans themselves’.
- But there doesn’t seem to be unanimous support for this in Kabul, in particular on the UN and the US side. UNAMA needs to insist on a full investigation, too. But UNAMA deputy head Peter Galbraith who reportedly did do has been sent on a ‘vacation’ by SRSG Kai Eide. In the UN mission in Kabul, there was something like a mutiny against a position to not publicly comment on voter turn-out figures, fraud etc.
- This is particularly worrying because UNAMA with its field presence definitely has a lot of real figures, reports and other evidence of what really had happened on 20 August at its disposal
- Richard Holbrooke goes into the same direction. He has recently repeated apologetic remarks that ‘there are imperfect elections throughout the west as well’ and that ‘that happens in every democracy’. As if Afghanistan were a democracy already.
- At the same time, the IEC’s announcement of the preliminary final result last Tuesday tries to establish a fait accompli which will be difficult to challenge. The presidential spokesman Wahid Omar echoed the feeling of the inner circle in ‘the palace’ by saying: ‘Unless a miracle happens, we are the winner.’
- This hangs a sword of Damocles over the whole process. It keeps the option open that the IEC simply overrules the ECC. It already has ignored the call of the head of the EU observers MEP Phillipe Morrillon not to publish any further results before all accusations of fraud has been checked.
- Meanwhile, President Karzai lashed out against foreign ‘interference’ by the ECC – as if it were an illegal body installed by a colonial power. But the ECC is based on current Afghan law after all; opportunities to change it beforehand were wasted by the parliament and under the eyes of the current executive.
- Karzai further defends ‘the integrity of the election and the integrity of the Afghan people, and the integrity of the government in that process’ and says that ‘[i]f there was fraud, it was small - it happens all over the world’. That sounds like what Holbrooke stated.

25 Sep 09

Officials To Audit Sampling Of Suspect Afghan Ballots : NPR

www.npr.org/...story.php - Preview

Afghanistan election fraud Karzai stabilization ECC IEC recount audit

Five weeks after Afghanistan's presidential elections, it's still unclear who will lead the country.
8 more annotations...
- Afghan and international officials are now hoping to break the logjam by agreeing to review ballots at about 10 percent of the nearly 3,100 polling stations flagged as suspicious by a U.N.-backed watchdog.
- Election officials will audit 313 polling stations to help determine which votes from the controversial election should be cast out. People who attended a closed-door meeting at the main United Nations compound Thursday say the polling stations where ballots will be reviewed are being kept secret for now to prevent tampering.
- An Afghan pedestrian walks in front of a wall of torn posters of presidential and provincial candidates in Kabul on Thursday. Five weeks after Afghanistan's presidential election, it's still unclear who will lead the country.
- Saving time is crucial. Winter in this mountainous country is only a few weeks way, after which many roads will become impassable. That will make it impossible to hold a runoff election should enough votes be invalidated to require one.
- The uncertainty is already paralyzing the Afghan government, which is seen by a growing number of people here as ruling without a legal mandate.
- But like most other efforts by Afghan and international election officials here, the upcoming audit is generating nervousness and suspicion.
- "What they've announced recently about the sampling, it is extremely unclear what they are talking about," said former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's chief election rival. "We don't know. They say it has to be transparent, it has to be fair, but we don't know the details."
- Many Western and Afghan election observers here say such grousing is understandable. They argue allegations of fraud should have been dealt with more quickly and decisively by Afghan officials and the international community.

Max Forte's Library tagged IEC → View Popular

In Afghanistan runoff, more polling stations may mean more fraud | csmonitor.com

Rejecting U.N. advice, Afghan panel to open 6,300 polls in runoff - washingtonpost.com

DEA agents among 14 Americans dead in Afghanistan - AP

Karzai dismisses election rival's ultimatum - Reuters

Taliban call for Afghans to boycott runoff poll - AP

Election Audit Said to Show Karzai Has 48 Percent - NYTimes.com

Afghan fraud panel voids thousands of Karzai votes - AP

France to Afghan rivals: Accept election results - AP

"Brick Wall" Feared in Afghan Election - washingtonpost.com

What the preliminary provincial results in Kabul tell us | The AfPak Channel

IEC - 2009 Election Results

This Fraud Is On You: The 2009 Afghan Elections and the U.N. Cover Up « OPEN ANTHROPOLOGY

Peter W. Galbraith -- U.N. Isn't Addressing Fraud in Afghan Election - washingtonpost.com

Fired UN envoy claims third of Hamid Karzai votes fraudulent | World news | The Guardian

The UN has abandoned democracy

UN official ousted after Afghan vote fraud dispute - AP

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Flaws overshadow Afghan outcome

UN chief Peter Galbraith is removed in Afghanistan poll clash - Times Online

The Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) / Blogs / Thomas Ruttig

Officials To Audit Sampling Of Suspect Afghan Ballots : NPR

Selected Tags

Related Tags

Sponsored Links

Top Contributors