The decision of President Hamid Karzai’s principle political challenger Dr Abdullah Abdullah to withdraw his candidacy from the run-off election scheduled for 7 November 2009 effectively signaled the final curtain call on a seemingly unending election drama characterized by serious allegations, widespread fraud and intense political theatrics. Thus, with Abdullah’s decision taking the wind out of the deeply flawed electoral process the Independent Election Commission (IEC) called of the second round and declared Hamid Karzai as the winner.

The Afghan elections, which cost the international community an estimated US $300 million, were meant to bolster the country’s fledgling democracy but have ironically undermined it further. Moreover, the international community which coerced Hamid Karzai into accepting a run-off election was left scurrying for cover following the IEC’s legally questionable decision of proclaiming Hamid Karzai as the new Afghan President. Given the deteriorating security situation, a prolonged political vacuum and bright prospects for Karzai and his sympathizers to once again subvert the electoral process the international community was left with little choice but to support the IEC’s decision.

While Karzai may have managed to engineer his political survival for the time being, if he fails to effectively and expeditiously address some of the key challenges facing the country he may soon be scripting his own political obituary. For the Afghans it is not important as to who is in power, what matters more is how that power is used. One of the most daunting challenges facing Karzai is that of corruption, very lucidly illustrated in Gordon Brown’s 6 November statement, "Sadly, the government of Afghanistan had become a byword for corruption.” The problem of corruption has become so pervasive in all spheres of Afghan national life- ranging from administrative corruption to the spending of aid money- that it threatens, like never before, to undermine the already very fragile foundations of the political system put in place since the Bonn process of 2001. The Global Corruption Report 2008 ranks Afghanistan 172 out of 180 countries on the list, while a corruption perception survey by Integrity Watch reveals that 72 per cent of the respondents surveyed felt their households were affected by corruption.

Corruption in turn is helping further de-legitimize an already deeply discredited government and is shoring up support for the Taliban insurgency which has grown at an alarming rate, with the militia estimated to hold considerable influence over 72 per cent of the country. A large majority of Afghans have switched allegiance to the Taliban not so much owing to ideological affiliation with the group but more out of its ability to effectively fill in the governance and administrative vacuum created by the eight years of sustained mismanagement by the Kabul government and its international allies. The menace of corruption has also helped ensure that even eight years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan continues to be a haven for the production and proliferation of drugs. Corruption and rampant lawlessness have severely blunted the state’s capacity to curb drug trafficking which has been a major source in financially sustaining the Taliban insurgency.

Thus, if Afghanistan’s downward spiral has to be arrested it is imperative for the international community to ensure that the problem of corruption be addressed at the highest level through the creation of credible and functioning national institutions such as the police and judiciary, intensive engagement in nation building activities especially in areas like education and health care, staff the new cabinet with competent Afghans and make the spending of billions of dollars in aid money more transparent and accountable.

On the international stage Karzai will have to mend his fences with Washington if there is to be effective coordination between the international coalition under the tutelage of the White House and its Afghan partners. Achieving synergy in the relationship between Hamid Karzai and the West will play a pivotal role in helping regain initiative in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is in need of urgent world attention, what is required is a joint effort to launch a sincere and sustained struggle against fundamentalism and corruption as well as canalization of efforts towards nation building activities. A further loss of momentum in Afghanistan would ensure that the country is more or less permanently condemned to the abyss of narco-trafficking and terrorism. A failure to arrest the country’s current downward spiral by the international community will be the greatest possible disservice rendered to the global security order.