Afghans respond to Karzai’s appointment as President

In Afghanistan today, Hamid Karzai promised to form an inclusive government and tackle corruption. The speech comes one day after Karzai was declared the de-facto winner of the run-off election, after his challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race.

“We are aware of the difficulties of our governance, and the environment in which we live. We will keep trying our best to address the question that we have, facing Afghanistan, and to make sure that the wished of Afghan people come true towards an effective, clean government, legally bound and also the same time to make sure that the tax paid money coming to us from your countries is spent wisely and rightly by us the Afghan government also by the donors themselves.”

President Karzai also called on the Taliban to leave the militancy and prepare for peace talks. But in a statement, the Taliban called Karzai a "puppet president" installed with the help of Washington and London.

Yesterday’s announcement handing Karzai a second five-year term is raising questions, as a candidate needs 50 percent of the vote to win under Afghan Election Law. After investigations into extensive fraud during the first round of voting, election officials threw out nearly one million illegitimate votes for Karzai, and his percentage dropped to 48 percent. For this edition of Street Beat, FSRN's Kabul-based reporter Mujahid Jawad talked to some MPs, residents and political experts about the legitimacy of this decision.

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You just heard Ahmad Shah Rasheed an NGO worker; Wais Kakar a law student; Mullah Tarakhail Kochi and Doud Sultanzoe, members of the lower house of Afghanistan's Parliament; Matiulllah Khurotai, an Afghan political expert; Ajmal Suhail, leader of the liberal party and Najeeb Mohammoud, an official of the Afghanistan Research and Study center -- all commenting on the decision to give Karzai a second term as president after his challenger withdrew from the run-off election.