Afghan president's legitimacy under scrutiny
Updated
The big question now is President Hamid Karzai's legitimacy.
His chief rival, the former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the runoff when his demands for the removal of key electoral officials weren't met.
Presenter: Sen Lam.
Speaker: Dr Thomas Gouttierre, Director of the Centre of Afghanistan Studies, University of Nebraska at Omaha
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GOUTTIERRE: No I would not; it's not the type of satisfactory end I think many people were hoping for, but I think we need to understand that first of all it's very difficult to conduct an election during this year in any case because of the lack of security. Where the ballot box stuffing went on was almost entirely in areas where there was not enough security for people to get to the polls. That doesn't excuse stuffing ballot boxes of course, but I think any demographic study and any pre-election analysis of what the election was going to produce in any case prior to the actual election would have suggested that Karzai was going to win rather handily, and even if he did not get a 50 per cent margin and in a run-off he would also have the demographic kind of roots that would have led to his election. So I think there will be some in Afghanistan, like Shukria Barakzai (Afghan MP) who you just heard, the representative who will question this, but I'm sure that there are many others who will take the other side that the results were what most people in Afghanistan expected going into the elections before any of the issues arose relating to the ballot boxes or the issues prior to the run-off.
LAM: Well the US President Barack Obama obviously has accepted the result; he's phoned President Karzai to congratulate him on his re-election. However he's also signalled a new tougher approach, and here's a little of what Mr Obama had to say about his phone call to the Afghan leader:
OBAMA: "He assured me that he understood the importance of this moment, but as I indicated to him the proof is not going to be in words, it's going to be in deeds. This has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter, based on improved governance, a much more serious effort to eradicate corruption."
LAM: US President Barack Obama. Dr Gouttierre the President of course is talking tough now, but President Hamid Karzai knows he's the only game in town so what real incentive is there for him to lift his game?
GOUTTIERRE: Well I think he does want to move his country forward, I've known him for many years and I know that he is motivated by very patriotic, nationally oriented incentives. And I think that he also knows that there is a new time, a new president and I think what will help to provide further incentive for him is if the United States finally does have a policy on Afghanistan. We haven't had one since 1989, we've been leaping through each year over the last eight years, outsourcing policies and under-sourcing our own resources in Afghanistan. I think it's very good that President Obama is going to be firmly announcing a definitive policy. I hope that he requires as much from us in the United States in the way we manage what we do there as he is asking of the Afghans. It is essential that we coordinate and take a definitive leadership in both the civil and military efforts in Afghanistan.
LAM: Dr Gouttierre what do you think should be President Hamid Karzai's first task?
GOUTTIERRE: Well I think President Karzai's kind of first statement to the Afghan people should be of course to try and find a way to again build a consensus among the population, that's what he's good at, he's not had a long history of management training etc., that's what he needs to receive from the international community, assistance in that area. The second thing he needs to do is to put focus on collaborating with the international communities to provide jobs for Afghans. Afghanistan is going through the worst depression in its history. There are, for example, 70 per cent of the population of Helmand Valley is unemployed, and until the Afghans are employed they're not going to be buying in. We've spent too much time in the international community, all of us, in providing contracts that put in high ticket, expatriate teams in Afghanistan. What we need to do really is to employ Afghans, work with them at the calendar they can follow and at the pace they can absorb and to move Afghanistan forward in that way.
