The second and final round of the Afghan presidential election is turning into a disaster. This was the vote that was due to set the country on a steady political path after the lackluster and corrupt two-term leadership of Hamid Karzai. Instead it seems set to split the country and clear the way for fresh Taliban advances. Preliminary results show that Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has taken 56 percent of the votes cast, giving him a clear lead over his rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. However, the minute the result was announced, the Abdullah camp went firm on mutterings that the ballot had been marred by extensive fraud and refused to accept the result. The electoral commission has reiterated that these results are only preliminary and the final tally will only be ready on July 22. Investigations are underway into allegations that ballot boxes were stuffed in many rural areas, not least in Ghani's Pashtun political heartland Kandahar. Aides to the apparent victor have been asking why it would be necessary to use phony votes in areas where his support was assured. Ghani for his part has also leveled accusations that the Abdullah camp has been involved in voting fraud. The electoral commissioners face a daunting task with this rising tide of acrimony in an election that, in its initial round, had seemed set to be the first example of a peaceful handover of power in Afghanistan's brief democratic history. Foreign observers are saying that the voting in the major towns and cities was in general a textbook example of how an election should be run. However, that is irrelevant since only around 20 percent of the 33-million population live in urban areas. The rural vote is, therefore, of crucial importance. Extensive fraud in large numbers of distant polling stations could have had a major impact on the result. And there are rumors that the vote-rigging might not simply have been by supporters of the rival candidates. It is being claimed that while in some areas the Taliban punished those who had voted by cutting off ink-stained fingers, in others, they themselves stuffed ballot boxes in an attempt to undermine the credibility of the election which they have opposed so vigorously. Whatever the truth about this, the growing standoff between Ghani and Abdullah is everything that the Taliban could have desired. Not only will Kabul be dogged by division and political instability, but a disputed outcome may very well stop the signing of the deal which will allow 10,000 US troops to stay on for two more years in support of the Afghan security forces. Outgoing president Karzai has refused to ink this agreement and will presumably be staying on as caretaker president until the dispute between Ghani and Abdullah is settled. The two rivals ought perhaps to reflect that what their country needs is stability, even at the price of electoral skulduggery. If both candidates are right that supporters of each have been involved in fraud, then maybe, in the face of the Taliban challenge, the best solution is for both sides to rally round the candidate whose campaign cheated better. The lust for presidential power is all very well, but if Ghani and Abdullah continue their confrontation, there will be no democratic Afghanistan for either of them to govern.
