Word: runoff
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...election of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. After the country's election-complaints board threw out a million suspicious ballots, Karzai refused to accept the results. On Oct. 20, after intense diplomatic lobbying by the U.S. and other international partners, Karzai at last announced he would acquiesce to a runoff with his rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. And yet the holding pattern continues. The vote, which Karzai is favored to win, is scheduled for Nov. 7, but it's unclear that this round will be any less contentious than the first. Fraud is still likely, Karzai is still tainted...
Little over a week ago, Senator John Kerry was hailed for his diplomatic success in Kabul, where he cajoled President Hamid Karzai into accepting a runoff in the disputed Afghan election. But Sunday's withdrawal from the race by Karzai's challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, rendered Kerry's achievement moot. Moreover, it was an outcome the U.S. had come around to rooting...
...fact that U.S. officials in Kabul had pivoted within a matter of days from insisting that a runoff be held to pressing for it to be canceled highlighted the problem with the U.S.'s obsession on staging elections in conflict zones. Such elections, though often held up (with the U.S. domestic political audience in mind) as examples of democracy's triumph, can actually undermine U.S. goals in those situations. Contrary to the Obama Administration's spin, resolving the dispute over the fraudulent ballots in Afghanistan's August election was never the key to determining whether to send more U.S. troops...
...Taliban, of course, and its call for a boycott of the poll was enforced by threat of death. But whether out of fear, political choice or sheer indifference, 12 million voters - representing 70% of the electorate, compared with just 30% in 2004 - stayed away from the ballot stations. A runoff election was expected to see an even smaller turnout. (See pictures of Afghanistan's mock election...
...Even as it pressed for a runoff, the U.S. seemed to recognize its irrelevance. By many accounts, its insistence on a second vote was intended as leverage to press Karzai into accepting a unity government with Abdullah rather than to actually go through with the poll. But Karzai called Washington's bluff, insisting on a second round he was confident of winning. Meanwhile, Abdullah, claiming that he'd be cheated again and probably recognizing that he was never likely to win even a clean election against Karzai, made clear his intention to boycott the runoff early on. The runoff...