AFGHAN ELECTION IN PERIL.

The news of the Afghanistan Presidential election being rigged is quite disturbing, with voter fraud allegations rising, and doubts being cast on a fair outcome.

Millions of Afghans risked their lives, in the face of Taliban threats, to vote, thinking that it was a national responsibility to do so. Some had their fingers dismembered, and even others were killed, after they had performed their civic duty, according to reports; and all that was coming to naught.

Karzai's top challenger, Abdullah was insistent that widespread irregularities occurred, such as the turnout of 40% in areas where only 10% of the people there voted; and that in southern Kandahar province a general had used his house as a polling station and ordered polling booth personnel to stuff the ballot box for Karzai. He named the the general as Gen. Abdul Razig. Other candidates have displayed mangled ballots that have be thrown out by election workers; and voter complaints continued to mount.

According to FOX News, "The controversy threatens to discredit an election that the Obama administration considers a key step in a new strategy to turn back the Taliban insurgency"; and if not dealt with within a short period of time, it (controversy) would drag down the political process to the point of allowing the election to be declared null and void. Hopefully, that would be out of the question, if the electoral complaints commission handled the legal appeals brought to its attention by Abdullah to prevent that from taking place.

The Canadian head of the electoral complaints commission, Grant Kippen, has mentioned that his group has received over 200 such complaints, 35 of which were "material to the election results". The Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan has "also catalogued violations", which made the situation looked pretty bad. Added to that was the fact that, the Afghan Independent Commission could not have a positive input in the matter or could not play an imprartial role, since its head was a Karzai appointee.

The Karzai people were naturally saying that the allegations were untrue, but that the oppositon was "just spreading propaganda" of fraud.

In view of all the turmoil, there happened to be a "safety net" of a runoff election, if any thing went wrong; however the electoral commission must be able to finish investigating most of the major complaints before a clear winner could be certified. The legitimacy of the election must first be established before the Taliban could be routed out, and to make the Afghanistan War worth fighting.

Our men and women in uniform deserved a better result of the election; for it (result) would be a notable recognition of their sacrifices. The Afghan election should not be in peril.