The Takeaway

Airs weekdays at 6AM on AM 820

Afghanistan Headed for Runoff Elections?

Monday, October 19, 2009

A U.N.-backed election commission has determined that neither of the two leading candidates received a majority of votes. According to unnamed officials, President Hamid Karzai, the incumbent, has received 47 percent of the vote. That finding could result in a runoff between Karzai and his leading opponent, Abdullah Abdullah.

We speak with Ambassador Peter Galbraith to find out more about the election results. Until last month, he was the number two ranking official at the United Nations office in Kabul. He was abruptly recalled after pushing internally for the U.N. to take fraud charges in the Afghan elections more seriously. We're also joined by Alexander Thier, director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

  • Guests:
  • Alexander Thier (Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the US Institute of Peace. )
  • Peter Galbraith (Former U.N. Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan)

Leave a Comment

Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.







URL

If you enter anything in this field your comment will be treated as spam
Location
* Denotes a required field