The Scouting Report: Afghanistan's Elections

Transcript

Fred Barbash-Moderator: The first round of the Afghan presidential election has just ended with current President Hamid Karzai and his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, both declaring victory. The final results of these elections will weigh heavily not only on the future stability of Afghanistan, but also on regional and international security. This, as Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan with the Taliban gaining strength.

Brookings expert Michael O’Hanlon is with us today to answer your questions about that country’s election. Welcome Michael. Welcome readers. Let's get started.

12:30 [Comment From Daniel Lippman] Michael-How worried are you about a drawn-out run-off election in Afghanistan and/or one major candidate not accepting the legitimacy of the vote? Abdullah Abdullah has said there was major "fraud"? Also, what does this whole electoral process mean for the ISAF and US troops fighting on the ground? Will the next President of Afghanistan be able to make the hard decisions about corruption and good governance needed to help win against the Taliban?

12:32 Michael O’Hanlon: Thanks for the question Dan. I would welcome a runoff but consider it relatively unlikely. It would delay formation of a new government, of course, but it would probably help Afghans believe in their democracy. Yes I am worried about fraud--though in what I saw last week, the larger problem was low turnout due to a combination of fear and apathy. That said, there were good things about this election that I'll surely get into in another answer.

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