W&M教授对阿富汗选举有第一手的了解
建立一个民主国家似乎并没有变得更容易。 最近的例子是什么？ 阿富汗。 饱受战争和选举舞弊指控之苦的阿富汗卡尔扎伊政府正在努力巩固国内外对其政府合法性的看法。
William & Mary assistant professor of 政府 王妃马伦 served as an international observer for their most recent election – a presidential contest held in late August. 马伦是民主国际组织在阿富汗的大约80名观察员之一。 Though she witnessed few fraudulent conditions, she fears her observations in Kabul, the nation’s capital, were not indicative of electoral conditions across the country.
民主国际并不是唯一一个在阿富汗观察选举的美国组织，这是这个新兴民主国家举行的第二次总统选举。 马伦说，除了民主研究所之外，国家民主研究所和国际共和研究所也在当地派了观察员。 马伦估计，她是在阿富汗的大约130名美国观察员之一，其中大多数和她一样是志愿者。 她承认，她目睹的选举并不是每个人都看到的选举。
"Essentially I think what happened was that there were two elections," Mullen recently told public radio host Cathy Lewis on her weekday program, 传闻.
马伦说，这是两次选举。 One election took place in, the polling places in some urban areas, like the ones she observed in the nation’s capital Kabul, where security was good, domestic and international observers were present, and voting procedures were largely followed. 另一场选举在远离首都或大城市的地方举行，那里不安全，而且似乎充斥着欺诈程序，包括重复投票（有时甚至更糟）。 She chronicled her observations and experiences in an 在线博客.
对马伦来说，这是一生难得的经历，她很乐意再来一次。
"If there is a second round, I’m there," she told Lewis.
事实上，第二轮谈判可能是必要的。 Complaints of fraud were rampant following the August 20th national election and the Electoral Complaint Commission (ECC) and the Independent Election Commission (IEC) have both issued press statements indicating election irregularities could force a re-vote.
马伦认为，第二轮投票的时机至关重要。
"A second round of elections before the end of October offers the best way to demonstrate that Afghans can still have a free choice and, with better voting procedures and international supervision, a more honest outcome," she wrote in the September 18 Foreign Policy magazine 文章 along with co-authors William Maley, director of the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University and Marvin G. Weinbaum, scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute.
虽然选举投诉委员会和独立选举委员会认可的结果对一个合法的政府来说是必不可少的，但推迟重新计票或重新投票也会产生问题。
马伦在传闻网站上指出，如果阿富汗在批准选举或要求重新投票之前就到了冬天，那么第二次选举将不得不等到春天，因为该地区的严冬天气造成了后勤方面的障碍。
还有政治方面的担忧。
他们在《外交政策》（Foreign Policy）杂志上写道：“噩梦般的情景是，美国被期望与一个因其掌握权力的过程而失去合法性的政府合作。”
他们得出结论，
1986年11月，在决定从阿富汗撤军的苏联政治局会议上，谢尔盖·阿赫罗梅耶夫元帅（Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev）直言不讳地说出了苏联在阿富汗的困境：“我们已经输掉了为阿富汗人民而战的战斗。” 如果在2009年，我们选择站在骗子一边，而不是选民一边，那么我们也将输掉为阿富汗人民而战的战斗。”