U.S. Aides Hint Afghan Voting May Be Put Off

[chasqui]

U.S. Aides Hint Afghan Voting May Be Put Off
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

Published: February 16, 2004

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 — The Bush administration has begun suggesting that Afghanistan's elections scheduled for June may have to be postponed because of security problems and the failure to register enough voters.

Administration officials said in recent days that security conditions remained dangerous or at least uncertain in a third of the country, hampering registration so badly that only 8 percent of eligible Afghan voters have been enrolled. Among women, only 2 percent have registered.

The United Nations has said at least 70 percent of eligible voters should be registered for the elections to be considered successful. That leaves only four months to achieve a daunting objective at a time when registration workers are avoiding large swaths of the country that are considered unsafe. Afghanistan has about 10.5 million eligible voters.

"I am reasonably confident that we can get enough voters registered and provide security — it won't be perfect — that at least the presidential election can take place in June, or maybe July," said an administration official. But he added that security would have to improve to reach that goal, and that this might not happen.

More at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/16/international/asia/16AFGH.html?hp

That is, if you can bear the inconvenience of having to register with nytimes.com. Maybe one of you enterprising folks can come up with a no-strings attached link.
My question is this: What does the USA have to gain by allowing free elections in Afghanistan?

[Sagan]

1. speaking of Afghan politics.....

Wasn't Karzai only supposed to be the INTERIM President? Like for 6 months or so?