The commission investigating reports of vote fraud in Afghanistan's presidential election is invalidating the ballots from polling stations in two provinces.
The U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission announced Thursday that it is excluding votes from 32 polling stations in Ghazni and Paktika provinces.
In a statement explaining its decision, the ECC cited "clear and convincing evidence of fraud," including unfolded ballots, uniformity of markings and lists of voters with fictitious card numbers.
The commission has also ordered recounts for ballots from some polling locations.
I don't understand why some think that we face a dilemma over the voter fraud in Afghanistan.
We should support the process no matter who gets burned. If Karzai is implicated in voter fraud, let Afghan law deal with him.
In a perfect world, tossing out votes puts Karzai below 50% and gives Afghans essentially a do-over to rethink their choice. And we'll know where to put more resources to monitor the next round of voting.
Heck, if Karzai is dirty and insists on staying in office, maybe it will be a blessing in disguise if we send aid to the provinces instead of funneling it through his corrupt government.
Not that the locals are less corrupt, but we can at least cut out the middleman's cut in our aid and have the corrupt people beholden to us and not Karzai.
