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Fareed Zakaria | BIO
CNN Anchor, “Fareed Zakaria – GPS”
President Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of another term in office as Afghanistan's leader Monday, after his opponent in a planned runoff election withdrew.
President Obama called Monday for a "new chapter" of improved governance in Afghanistan now that Karzai's re-election as president is complete. Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission announced Karzai's victory Monday after it canceled Saturday's presidential runoff because of the withdrawal of candidate Abdullah Abdullah.
Fareed Zakaria, author and host of "Fareed Zakaria: GPS" spoke to CNN Monday about Karzai's election.
CNN: What do you make of today's developments?
Fareed Zakaria: In a sense, it adds to the drama and tension surrounding the politics of Afghanistan, but it doesn't materially change very much because Abdullah was not going to win. Karzai was going to be the next president of Afghanistan. Imagine there had been a runoff and Karzai had won. We would have been roughly where we are today. The big problem is that it has not rebuilt Hamid Karzai's legitimacy. What he needs right now is not power or position, it's legitimacy.
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Filed under: Afghanistan • Fareed Zakaria |
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Help him (Karzai) govern?
The American CIA dictates what Karzai does and how he governs, period. There is very little if/but or wiggle room on the CIA dictates regarding how and what Karzai does as the puppet President of Afghanistan.
A. Smith
Oregon
Strangest thing I heard today was Obama saying he wanted to action and not empty words. Strange in that it came from him, man of little action but many words.
Legitimacy dear friend is a big ticket item. Day or night it reigns supreme and what you are talking about here is a Non-Christian nation!! Even if Hamid Karzai were to invest into an airline ticket and hotel stay to guest at an Ophra Winfrey show, I still think that his realistic expectations for “Legitimacy” would be far off.