In the midst of all this, there were the elections that took place. These elections were fraught with allegations of fraud and malpractices, with the contender, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah claiming that Karzai had taken a number of steps to influence people to vote for him, and during the time of elections, there was voter fraud. These charges have been repeated often enough that the election was seen as disputed, even though Karzai claims that he won the election and there was no need for a runoff.
However, it now seems that Karzai has accepted that the election was not as straight forward as he initially stated, and that he has agreed to a run off (even though the article states that it was not easy to get Karzai to agree to a run off) (link to article):

It had been hard to get President Hamid Karzai to accept a run-off, he said. Earlier, there were indications that Mr Karzai and his rival Abdullah Abdullah were discussing a power-sharing deal. The UN meanwhile announced that 200 top officials who had allegedly been complicit in electoral fraud in August were being replaced.
In an interview with the BBC’s Lyse Doucet, Mr Eide admitted that there had been difficult days of discussion in Kabul to convince President Karzai to accept a second round vote on 7 November.

The exit polls that started getting published once the stay on them was removed after the 13th (the last phase of election) were again off the mark, since they all projected that the Congress will have a narrow lead over the BJP and would need support from many parties. The BJP of course refused to believe such polls and stood fast in projecting that they will be the victors.
And then came the election results – and they were shocking to everyone. The Congress led poll, the UPA, is almost at the point of having half the seats, while the BJP led alliance, the NDA, is way behind. The Congress gained seats all over the country, with the party looking to reach 200 seats on its own (its best result since it started declining in the 1989 polls); it trounced the BJP in many states that the BJP should count as core constituencies such as Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttranchal, and made gains even in states such as Madhya Pradesh and Gujrat. The Congress made real good in states such as Andhra Pradesh, with the partners, the DMK, in Tamil Nadu.
However, the major surprises in this election happened in multiple states; in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress needs to get back its core constituency and it seems that the gamble it took seems to have paid off (it has got 20 seats on its own), in Maharashtra, the MNS seems to have bitten into the seats of the Shiv Sena and the BJP and led the Congress to victory. The biggest surprise has been the Left strongholds of Kerala and West Bengal. Kerala frequently changes between the Congress and the Communist, and in this election, the fight between the different factions of the Communist party propelled the Congress to victory. The biggest surprise seems to have been in West Bengal where the Congress combination with Mamta Banerjee blew away the Communist party in the state where the Communists have held sway since 1977.
What are some of the conclusions from this election:
- Manmohan Singh re-emerges as the Congress Prime Minister with a much stronger support and with less interference from supporting parties
- The BJP leader LK Advani will slowly fade away – he is already 81 years old and unlikely to be the leader in the next election
- Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are the unquestioned leaders of the country now – even people such as me who do not believe in dynastic based leadership have to acknowledge that they have led their party to a genuine victory
- Nitish Kumar and Naveen Patnaik are new emblems of victory, with strong shows of performance and low individual corruption levels
- The Left, having been used to a much stronger influence in the last Parliament will be a pale self with questions about the leadership becoming much stronger
- Mayawati has faced a severe setback in her quest for national leadership; the same goes for former influential leaders such as Mulayam Singh Yadav (who suffered after inducting Kalyan Singh), Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan
- Economic policies and world related policies should remain the same and in fact become more clear and without the holding back due to the Left

BALTIMORE — The nation’s Catholic bishops are expected to issue a statement Wednesday pledging cooperation with president-elect Barack Obama on numerous social issues but vowing all-out opposition to any law or executive order he may sign advocating abortion rights. Bishops lined up by the dozens Tuesday to add increasingly harsh language to a preliminary draft of the statement, to be crafted and signed by Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The initial draft of the bishops’ statement expressed a “desire to work with the administration” on social issues such as immigration, economic justice and health care for the poor, highlighting that, “the Church is intent on doing good.” However, “the Church is also intent on opposing evil,” says the next line. The draft hammered against abortion, saying in part:
“The common good of our country is assured only when the life of every unborn child is legally protected. Aggressively pro-abortion policies and legislation will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans and would be interpreted by many Catholics as an attack on the Church.”

Abortion has always been a hot issue in the US political arena, with hot opinions for and against it. Typically, the Democratic Party has always been pro-life; but things will get complicated due to more Democrats coming in from the more conservative areas, where their constituents are against abortion.

With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say. Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue.” A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.
“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser. “She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. “Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.” But two sources, one Palin associate and one McCain adviser, defended the decision to keep her press interaction limited after she was picked, both saying flatly that she was not ready and that the missteps could have been a lot worse.

No matter whether she decides to increase her national persona, and campaigns for the 2012 election (assuming that McCain loses this one), she will remain a deeply polarizing figure – somebody very popular with the conservatives and who turns off a large section of voters on the center and the Democratic voters. If a section of the Republican Party feels that with her current appeal to conservatives, she can become a national figure who could stand for President in the following election, they have another think coming.

Earlier this year, things came to a head when a extremely diverse coalition of academics, activists, businessmen, and many others came together to form a People’s Alliance and started a protest (essentially blockading the headquarters of the Government). Eventually, the Prime Minister was forced to resign on a technicality, and now another Prime Minister, Somchai Wongsawat (incidentally a brother-in-law of the deposed Prime Minister Thaksin) came to power; and he is facing the same protests:

In a day of street battles that left more than 100 people wounded, anti-government protesters surrounded Parliament on Tuesday, trapping hundreds of lawmakers inside throughout the afternoon. Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat escaped over a back fence in the morning after delivering a policy address. But other members were unable to leave for more than five hours, when the police dispersed the massed protesters with volleys of tear gas and cleared the way for them. The assault on Parliament escalated a six-week sit-in on the grounds of the prime ministers office, a kilometer away, that had forced the government to relocate its business to a former international airport.
The People’s Alliance is a patchwork coalition of businessmen, academics and activists who accuse the government of being a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in a coup in 2006 and who fled to exile in London in August. The alliance says it wants to modify the country’s democratic system to weaken the electoral power of the rural poor, who formed the base of support of Thaksin and now of the governing People Power Party.

This is one of the systematics debates about democracy; where a section of the population believes that they know better than the others (who may be less educated, or more radicalized, or more susceptible to populist pressures, or fill in your own reason). In some cases this may be true, but to seek a version of democracy where the votes of people are not equal, is going on a very slippery slope.

Zimbabwe’s power-sharing agreement marks a new turn in mediation efforts by South African President Thabo Mbeki in the country wracked by the world’s highest inflation rate, the African Union said.
Under the agreement, the Movement for Democratic Change’s Tsvangirai, 56, will become prime minister, heading a council of ministers, said a senior member of the MDC’s governing national executive and two members of the politburo of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. The three officials declined to be identified because the deal is confidential until it’s announced on Sept. 15.

If this agreement comes to a successful conclusion, there may be a chance the decline of Zimbabwe may get reversed. Zimbabwe has been suffering through incorrect economic policies, and undergoes the highest inflation rate in the world (in the millions). With a new Prime Minister (although the current President Robert Mugabe remains in his post), there is a hope that he can bring about changes in policies that would stem the decline in Zimbabwe.

Pakistan’s foreign minister has said President Pervez Musharraf must stand down in the next two days or face impeachment proceedings. “Musharraf is running out of time”, said Shah Mahmood Qureshi, of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – a major partner in the governing coalition. Draft charges against the president include violation of the constitution and gross misconduct, officials said.
The impeachment campaign was launched last week by leaders of the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Nawaz Sharif, who was toppled in the 1999 coup, said he was opposed to any deal which would give his old rival a “safe passage”. But the PPP, the party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, says the decision of whether to put the president on trial should be left to parliament.

The move to proceed towards impeachment was something that the political parties were promising ever since they came into power, but they were not able to agree on a lot of other things such as getting the sacked judges back into power. Support for Musharraf is now at an alltime low, and it would seem that even his supporters in Washington are willing to let him go. At the same time, the action of the army is not yet known, although there is a lot of speculation.
The army would not want the spectacle of its chief for 8 years to be impeached by parliament, since that sets a bad precedent, and could lead to a perceived reduction of the power of the army in the informal troika that rules Pakistan (the Prime Minister and Army Chief are the stronger heads, and the President is the weaker link). The best course for the army would be to let Musharraf gracefully resign, with no further action against him, and with the understanding that the influence of the army is not reduced one bit. For all the talk from General Kiyani that the army should remain apolitical, he is no doubt not going to do anything that could lead to a reduction of the influence of the army.

Zimbabwe’s opposition party on Tuesday formally withdrew its presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, from Friday’s run-off, a spokesman told CNN. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) hand-delivered a letter signed by Tsvangirai to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, saying it will not participate in the runoff with President Robert Mugabe, spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, he said “This is total war and we cannot be part of that war. “This is not an election because the conditions are just horrendous.” He added, “I’ve been arrested, I’ve been brutalized — this is not exaggeration. This is reality here.” Tsvangirai announced Sunday that he was dropping out of the runoff, citing what he called an ongoing campaign of political harassment, intimidation and arrests by Mugabe’s government and the ruling Zanu-PF party.

This decision will just complicate things in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is now sure to win a runoff that is bound to come under incredible criticism from the international community (and mostly be deemed as invalid). Mugabe really does not care too much for the international community, but the country has really suffered in the past few years, and is likely to continue doing so.

“The European Council noted that the Czech Republic cannot complete the ratification process until the constitutional court delivers its positive opinion on the accordance of the Lisbon Treaty with the Czech constitutional order,” the leaders said in a footnote to their final statement at a two-day summit.
Most leaders sought to put a positive spin on the message, noting that ratification of the treaty by other countries would continue and they would review the way forward together with Ireland at their next summit in October.

This rejection by Ireland and a possible rejection by the Czech Republic threatens the treaty. If one country rejects it, then the opponents in other countries also get more impetus for their efforts.

Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is discussing pulling out of next week’s presidential runoff, a source close to the MDC leadership told CNN. The MDC has blamed Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party supporters for beatings, kidnappings, arrests, and the deaths of more than 70 people since the March 29 election. MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai has complained of harassment after being detained several times in recent weeks, and MDC Secretary-General Tendai Biti appeared in court Friday on charges including treason, which carries the death penalty.
Under land redistribution policies he started in 2000, Mugabe seized white-owned farms and gave the land to black Zimbabweans, saying they were cheated under colonial rule. The number of white-owned farms in Zimbabwe, once in the thousands, has since dwindled to about 400. Most of the redistributed land has not been harvested, and many analysts blame Zimbabwe’s economic collapse — including staggering inflation and unemployment — on the farm seizures.

The chief weapon that Mugabe wields is the threat of arrest or violence, and he will easily use these weapons as is suitable for him. Pressure from the international community (not from South Africa unfortunately) has been unable to sway his actions. What is true is that if the MDC does not take part in the elections after alleging force, then the elections will have a severe loss of credibility, and may not even be acknowledged as valid elections.