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October 21, 2009

Mr. Karzai Relents

New York Times, New York Times

AP Photo

Before Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, acceded to a runoff election on Tuesday, you could almost hear his arm being twisted. And it took a lot of top-level talent to do it. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, all insisted that Mr. Karzai accept an international audit that found that nearly one-third of his first-round votes were stolen — driving his final count to below 50 percent.

Even then it took a five-day marathon of negotiations with Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, to get Mr. Karzai to do what was necessary. And that was the easy part.

To ensure that the runoff is fair and credible, it’s going to take a lot...

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TAGGED: Afghanistan

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