Lex Libertas

Afghan Inauguration

Karzai told the story of an elderly woman from the Farah province who came to a polling station with two voter's cards:

She went up to an election worker and declared that she wanted to vote twice, once for herself, and again for her daughter who, she said, was about to deliver her child and unable to come to the polling station to vote. "We are sorry, but no one can vote for another person, this is the rule," the elderly lady was told. So she voted--for herself--and left the station. Later in the day, the election worker was shocked to see the elderly woman back, this time accompanying her young daughter to the polling station. Her daughter carried her newborn baby, as well as her voting card which she used to cast her vote.

There is, as Cheney acknowledged, "much work to be done." But ... between 3.5 and 4 million Afghan refugees have returned to their country. Ten million Afghans registered to vote, and of that group about 80 percent showed up at the polls. The majority of those Afghans voted for Hamid Karzai in an election that was praised by outside observers as clean and extraordinarily well run, and Karzai was inaugurated without incident in Kabul. "It's a hell of a story," says Cheney.

At the press conference in Kabul, Cheney followed Karzai's remarks with some of his own. He congratulated Karzai on his victory and pledged American support of Afghan democracy. There was a brief pause at the end of Cheney's statement as both men seemed unclear about the procedures for the question-and-answer session to follow. When Karzai looked to Cheney for direction, the vice president leaned toward the Afghan leader and away from the microphone and in a voice audible only to those standing nearby, reminded Karzai of the obvious. "You're in charge now."