Afghanistan's Elections

Afghanistan's Presidential elections went off much as expected. There have been some allegations of fraud. At the same time, turn-out was extremely high. I also maintain that advance intimidation was a factor underming these elections, as even with the secret ballot, those in authority will be willing to punish concentrations of those who vote the wrong way.

The bottom line for Afghanistan, however, is that Hamid Karzai will have a renewed mandate recognized in that country, if not in every corner of the globe. He seems clearly to have been the people's choice, one reason why fraud and intimidation were not even more widespread than they already were. I'm not willing to sign off on the idea that Afghanistan is a democracy, but there were no serious disruptions of its path toward greater stability and responsive government. That was really all we could hope for.