Afghan Election Fraud

You would think with all the money US taxpayers have thrown at Afghanistan, Karzai's puppet government could have afforded a few thousand permanent marker pens.

Despite my entrenched anti-Bush stance, I was still hopeful that something close to a free and fair election COULD have been held in Afghanistan one day, given the ongoing UN involvement there. But when you add the removeable ink scandal to a dozen other problems, including pre-registration of 140% of eligible voters, the elections become a sad farce.

It is quite obvious that the country was not ready for such a vote, particularly given the invading forces' failure to provide much needed reforms and investment, including education and infrastructure development. For example, some villagers were told:

"Vote for Karzai or get your house burnt down.Any man who does not vote for the US-appointed interim president will not be buried by his family. And he can forget about marrying off his female relatives, too."

The big problem was always going to be Bush's need to get the Afghan election results on CNN before November 2nd. Whatever the Afghan people get out of this process, it will not be anything that Bush can seriously call "Democracy". Of course, that won't stop him from doing so.