SUMMARY OF VARIED OPEN SOURCES:
There is a Pashtun Storm brewing.
For months Karzai has been frantically trying to deal away the run-off, thus acknowledging that Ghani has won the Presidency. Karzai is trying to place Abdullah as Prime Minister (which has always been Abdullah's only realistic goal as a 100% Tajik minority) and claim ministry and province positions for the Karzai-Abdullah team. The mere fact that Karzai is so frantic confirms my personal view that Ghani has won this election beyond the ability of fraud, I now call for him to win by 6% or more even with the massive fraud that is planned.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is being flooded with bribes courtesy of Iran, and threats courtesy of Pakistan, the latter evidently concerned about increased calls for an end to the Durand Line and the restoration of a unified Pashtunistan. These pressures are having a very strong counter-effect on the Pashtun tribes. It may be too much to hope for, but the possibility of the Taliban becoming the true providers of security for election day, holding in check the Afghanistan National Police that Daudzai has ordered to support Abdullah in every possible way, could be the icing on the cake.
Ghani has won. It now appears less likely that the planned ballot fraud will succeed. Most interestingly, the “leaders” that accepted bribes to align with Abdullah have not been followed. Their staffs and earlier supporters are aligning with Ghani.
The 5,000 mullahs declaring that Ghani is the only true and legitimate candidate confirms my personal view, and that of others whom I have consulted who say Ghani is the only “clean” candidate. Afghanistan is fed up with Karzai, and Abdullah is rapidly losing ground for multiple reasons including Karzai, Abdullah's blatant offers of bribes for support, Abdullah's trying to label Ghani wife as Jewish (we do not make this stuff up, she is Lebanese Christian), and emerging evidence he was an active commander who led the commitment of atrocities, something he and Atta have worked diligently to conceal.
It is now known that the IEC was well aware of Abdullah's massive fraud in the primary elections, but chose not to make an issue of it, believing that it would not have yielded a first round victory for any candidate. It is now known that there are clear methods for detecting fraud. Less obvious to me is whether there will be polls carried out of sufficient quality to repeat the success of D3Systems and others, easily identifying double-digit fraud by Abdullah district by district.
THE MULLAHS AS TRANSLATED: On June 5th, 2014 around 5000 Islamic scholars and former Taliban commanders who have joined the peace reconciliation program of Afghan government, have joined Dr.Ashraf Ghani, during the gathering in Loya Jirgha Tent in the presence of Dr.Ashraf Ghani and his two vice presidents most of the Mula and Islamic Scholars stated that according to Islam we should choose best person as leader and president and Dr.Ashraf Ghani is the best candidate for this job from our perspective and we encourage all Afghan muslim and tribe to vote for Dr Ashraf Ghani and make him as leader of this nation.
See many other endorsements at https://www.facebook.com/ashrafghani.af.
Phi Beta Iota: We are not taking sides. This information is provided because the mainstream media appears to have been bought and paid for in prematurely and inaccurately declaring Abdullah to be the winner. In our view, the US Government and the US media are complicit in permitting an Iranian hijack of what should be — if Ghani is not cheated out of his legitimate victory — a major success story for emergent democratic processes in Afghanistan.
See Also:
2014 Elections (20): The Ashraf Ghani interview [thanks to Rob Sentse]
Pajhwok Afghan News: Ghani appears closing down gap with Abdullah: Poll by Lalit K. Jha
Airport Attack in Pakistan Shows Taliban’s Lasting Strength
Mini-Me: Iran Is NOT a Nuclear Threat — Cover for Other Actions
Review: The Health of Nations–Society and Law beyond the State
