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Afghanistan deal
[DAWN] THE election deal secured in Afghanistan by the international community yesterday cannot really be called democratic, but at least it has given the country a chance to establish relative peace and stability.Unhappily, three elections into a new era aspiring towards democracy, the Afghan electoral process remains hostage to back-room deals, powerbrokers and warlords. Without forgetting Pakistain's own struggles with democracy over more than six decades, the most worrying part about the post-2001 Afghan political system is that it does not quite give an impression of being sustainable. If elections are to be a complete sham -- the winner was announced yesterday by the Independent Election Commission chairman without even sharing a final vote count -- and do not incrementally move towards the goal of transparency and fairness, then surely at some point behind-the-scenes powerbrokers inside Afghanistan may dispense with the façade altogether. Posted by: Fred 2014-09-22 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=400476 |