Reports Link Karzai’s Brother to Afghanistan Heroin Trade

[Peter Presland]

Well the 'vintage entertainment' I looked forward to in my last post wasn't long coming. This from Associated press (Hat tip to Juan Cole):

JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says Abdullah Abdullah's call for a boycott of next weekend's runoff election in Afghanistan will not affect the legitimacy of that runoff.
Clinton was asked Saturday at a news conference in Jerusalem about the presidential challenger's decision to not participate in the runoff.
She said that it his decision to make but said the runoff has already been legitimized.
When Afghan President Hamid Karzai accepted the runoff after the first election, she said, "that bestowed legitimacy from that moment forward."
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the matter of when to hold a runoff was a decision for the Afghans, and they have already said it should be Nov. 7.
Asked about putting it off until spring, Crowley said, "It's not our decision," adding, "The sooner a new government emerges, the better."

Or as Al Jazeera puts it:

James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kabul, said many Afghans had told him that an election with only one candidate would be "farcical".

"I've been speaking to Afghans and they're all telling me the same thing: They believe that an election with only one candidate would be simply farcical," he reported.

"One educated Afghan said to me that one of the great things that the West has always boasted about after the days of the Taliban, was bringing democracy to Afghanistan. [But] many Afghans are asking what sort of democracy results in a second-round election with only one candidate."

Quite so.

Lots more to come I have no doubt.