Sommaire: 17 November 2009, Brussels - In a meeting with Members of the European Parliament on the Afghan presidential election, United Nations Special Representative to Afghanistan Kai Eide noted: "I did not want the UN to be involved in a second round"
Kai Eide, the UN Special Representative to Afghanistan, told MEPs on Monday of his reluctance to involve the UN in the presidential run-off, where fraud would have been inevitable. MEPs of the Development Committee questioned him about electoral fraud and the upcoming Parliamentary elections, ahead of Hamid Karzai's swearing-in in this Thursday.
Mr Eide questioned Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission saying "it is not independent". "Can we continue to support elections in the future with an Electoral Commission that not independently appointed? I did not want the UN to be involved in a second round where widespread voter fraud was to be expected" he told MEPs.
"We cannot afford to have Parliament elections run the way these elections were held! Our citizens will ask us to stop spending money there if that's the case", said Thijs Berman (S&D, NL), who was supposed to head the EU Election Observation Mission for the second round. Mr Berman also heads Parliament's delegation for the relations with Afghanistan.
"Karzai was not re-elected out of fraud but because his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of the second round", Mr Eide, the UN Special Representative to Afghanistan and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), stressed in response to questions by Ulrike Lunacek (Greens/EFA, AT) and Ivo Vajgl (ALDE, SL).
Since the Afghan Parliament will be in recess as of 6 December, Mr Eide expressed his "hope to have a government before the end of 2009". Whether the new government is a "coalition" or a "government of national unity" doesn't matter, according to Mr Eide, who stated "what we need is good ministers (like the current Finance, Agriculture or Interior ministers)".
Afghanistan's sovereignty agenda
"The international community should change its focus and spend more money on activities that can generate revenues for the Afghans themselves", said Mr Eide, pointing to the potentially "vibrant mining industry" of the country.
Developing Afghanistan's own resources is part of what M. Eide called the country's "sovereignty agenda", which also includes building an army and a police force, reinforcing institutions, setting-up a peace and reconciliation process and rethinking Afghanistan's role in the wider region.
Quizzed by MEPs about the failings of Hamid Karzai and the Afghan government in general, Mr Eide said "This is not 2002 anymore! Institutions in Afghanistan do work but on a modest scale. What we now need to do is help the Afghans build their own legislation and institutional framework".
Gay Mitchell (EPP, IE) asked the UN Representative how free the voters were to cast their votes. Mr Eide answered him that "Afghanistan is not an individualistic society like ours. Voters follow ulemas' [Muslim legal scholars'] indications in a country where between 80 and 85% of the population is illiterate".
He also said that "a political process with the Taliban is needed" but refused to use the word "negotiations".
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