Exaggerated Registration Counts: Election Scandal

The downfall of the Pakistan-installed regime of Taliban on October 7th, 2001 resulted in the installation of Mr.Hamid Karzai as Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority (AIA) at a conference in Bonn, Germany on 22 December 2001. Subsequently, he became the President of the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA) at Loya Jirga (Grand Assembly) held in June 2002. The current situation gives the impression that he will be put in the presidential office after October “election ” with the financial and military power of the US for an unknown period. However, Mr. Karzai rarely ventures from his heavily guarded presidential compound because of continual threats to his life. He has narrowly escaped three assassination attempts till now. During the current year, US ambassador for Afghanistan, Mr. Khalilzad and a designated Karzai’s team have been very busy in the election campaign bribing electorates and tribal heads to vote for Karzai in order to fix him in the office. “United Nations Development Program (UNDP) implemented voter registration at a cost of US$100 million mainly funded by US and Britain. ” (1) Karzai is blamed for using government facilities in the election campaign and the foreign aid donated for the so-called “reconstruction of Afghanistan”