Commentary
The Fraud of Democracy
in Afghanistan Exposed
In the days following the August presidential elections in
Afghanistan the election commission reported that incumbent president Karzai had received over 50 percent of the votes and had
been re-elected. However, UN election observers reported widespread election
fraud, with the number of votes at many polling stations far exceeding the
number of electors eligible to vote. Some polls reported 100 percent of the
votes cast for Karzai.
In the case of the recent elections in Iran, the U.S. and
other western powers made a lot of noise about a failure of democracy and there
were many calls for regime change in Iran. However, despite far more evidence
of election fraud in Afghanistan, the western powers said little. There were no
condemnations of the lack of democracy in Afghanistan and no calls for regime
change. The Canadian government, which claims to have troops in Afghanistan for
the purpose of defending democracy, has said virtually nothing about the rampant
election fraud. This demonstrates a profound double standard on what
constitutes democracy and fair elections and proves that the imperialist powers
do not give a damn about democracy. They promote elections when that serves
their interests and ignore the results when that serves their interests.
However, as more and
more evidence mounted, including videos of Karzai
supporters stuffing ballot boxes, support in Europe and North America for the
war plummeted. The occupying countries were forced increasingly to distance
themselves from the Karzai regime and to put pressure
on Karzai to accept a runoff vote with second-place
finisher Abdullah Abdullah. Initially Karzai refused, but eventually he succumbed to the pressure
and accepted a run-off election to be held in
mid-November.
The failed election in Afghanistan illustrates a number of
important features of the current international arrangement between the big
powers. First, none of the big powers has seen fit to point out that
international law does not recognize the validity of elections held under
conditions of occupation. It is impossible for the people of a country to
express and exercise their sovereignty when their country is partially under the
control of foreign military forces. Furthermore, democratic elections are
impossible under such conditions since those political forces opposed to the
occupation are not allowed to contest the elections. In the case of Afghanistan
even the decision to hold a run-off election was not made by the Afghan government,
but was forced on it by the occupying powers. So, quite apart from the issue of
election fraud, it is a fraud to even talk about democracy in Afghanistan so
long as foreign troops remain in the country.
These elections also illustrate that there are not only
intense contradictions within the ranks of the Afghan collaborators, but also
intense contradictions among the occupiers on the issue of which group of
collaborators to prop up. Both the Karzai faction and
the factions opposed to him are hated by the people for their past crimes, as
well as for their current corruption and their support for the American-led
military occupation. However, Karzai has accomplished
virtually nothing during his almost eight years in power from the point of view
of the occupiers. He has not succeeded in creating a viable Afghan army, nor
has he done anything to alleviate the suffering of the people. Furthermore, in
the eyes of the world’s people he is seen as a corrupt and inept politician, a
reputation which was further enhanced with the recent election fraud. So he is
increasingly becoming a liability to the occupiers, undermining their war
effort both within Afghanistan and among their own peoples.
The problem faced by the U.S.-led occupiers is that their
lies are growing thin. People are increasingly coming to the conclusion that
the war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with democracy and human rights and
everything to do with imperialist conquest. Those Afghan nationals supporting
the occupation are increasingly exposed as corrupt warlords and drug dealers.
Therefore, regardless of the results of the November run-off elections or even
if a power-sharing arrangement is reached which does away with another election, public opinion will continue to turn against the
imperialists and their war of occupation.