Helping or Hurting?

Abdullah Abdulla spoke publicly today about the election of his rival, incumbent Hamid Karzai. Karzai won office by default since there was no other candidates in the runoff election after Abdullah dropped out. Abdullah was quoted as saying, "The process has completed itself with that final, illegal decision."

As true as these remarks may be, it was Dr. Abdullah's decision to not participate in the runoff election. Dr. Abdullah dropped out of the runoff election because he did not believe that the election would be run fairly because there had not been adequate changes to the voting system to prevent the fraud that forced the runoff election, and he was probably right. The problem, however, is that he was a candidate campaigning for the betterment of Afghanistan, and a day after Karzai was elected as president Abdullah was publicly challenging the system's legitimacy.

Do not get me wrong, Karzai should have made several of the changes that Abdullah demanded for the runoff election, such as the removal of Azizullah Lodin from the IEC. The chances of the runoff being fair were very slim. There was, however, a little hope that with the UN looking over their shoulder, the IEC would have run a better election. All these factors gave Abdullah every right to challenge the legitimacy during the campaign.

Dr. Abdullah's complaints, however, would be far more legitimate if he had participated in the runoff, just as Mousavi's criticisms of the Iranian government are still legitimate. Since, however, he did not participate Dr. Abdullah's comments no longer serve a constructive purpose, but rather destroy Karzai's already weak legitimacy, legitimacy that Karzai needs to root out corruption and the Taliban.

"Afghan Election Victory 'Illegal'"
Quote Source: BBC News