13 October 2009
Media Advisory

Afghanistan political situation in crisis

The political situation in Afghanistan is in crisis following findings of electoral fraud, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told Labour leader Phil Goff in New York today.

Phil Goff, who worked personally with Mr Ban when he was Korea’s foreign minister, had a 50 min meeting with the UN Secretary General at the United Nations.

“Secretary General Ban described the political situation in Afghanistan as being in crisis.

“A five-member electoral complaints commission is this week likely to find that fraud in the August 20 election voting was so widespread as to render the result unreliable,” Phil Goff said.

“The commission is likely to recommend that a second round of voting is required as it is unlikely that President Karzai did actually win more than 50 per cent of the vote.

“With winter approaching, a second round of voting will be problematic and it is by no means certain that President Karzai will agree to it.

“This election, which was meant to give legitimacy to Afghanistan’s government, will likely end up having the opposite result.

“This outcome aggravates the situation where the Afghanistan government has been shown to be endemically corrupt, its national police incompetent and deeply unpopular and the Afghanistan government ineffective in failing to deliver to the Afghan people.

“This is the context in which President Obama is making a decision as whether to commit further US troops to that country.

“He will also have to make a decision as to whether an additional 40,000 US troops, taking the total US commitment to 108,000, can achieve stability in Afghanistan when the Soviet Union with half a million troops on the ground failed to do so,” Phil Goff said.

Mr Goff met with top UN officials today including under secretaries for political affairs and disarmament, and UN development administrator Helen Clark.

He returns to New Zealand after meetings in New York tomorrow on NZ-US trade initiatives.

ENDS

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