President Hamid Karzai is blaming foreigners for widespread fraud in last year’s presidential election.
Karzai told election workers Thursday there had been “vast fraud” in the Aug. 20 ballot but that it was not committed by Afghans.
Instead, he accused U.N. and European Union officials of interfering in the process to force the election into a runoff, which was scrapped when Karzai’s main opponent dropped out.
Karzai singled out former U.N. deputy chief Peter Galbraith, who was fired in a dispute with his boss about how to deal with fraud allegations, and the head of the E.U. observers, retired French Gen. Philippe Morillon.
Karzai was forced into a runoff after a U.N.-backed commission threw out nearly a third of his ballots.