We have a "Winner!"

Despite wide-spread and systematic irregularities in the last round of elections, Hamid Karzai has been declared the "winner" of the run-off election by Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission.

Earlier in this saga, Prime Minister Harper declared, "Canada has consistently stated that all parties must respect the Afghan electoral process and the Afghan constitution."

Well, the Afghan constitution isn't built to handle a run-off election with only one candidate:

Article 61 [Direct Election]

(1) The President is elected by receiving more than 50% of the votes cast through free, general, secret, and direct voting. [Karzai got 49.67% votes + or - a few thousand 'irregular' votes]

[and...]

(4) If none of the candidates succeeds to receive more than 50% of the votes in the first round, a run-off election shall be held within two weeks.
(5) In this round, only two candidates with the highest number of votes will participate.
(6) In the run-off, the candidate who gets the majority of the votes shall be elected as the President.

So, where does this leave the West?

The Obama administration has declared support for Karzai. Will the other coalition members fall in line and support Karzai?

Former challenger Abdullah Abdullah has said that he'll continue to work to improve the lives of Afghans.

Lofty goal, to be sure, but are our troops going to be in a position of enforcing Karzai's questionable rule while his rival continues to try to build support in the lead-up to next year's parliamentary elections.

I hope not.

Indeed, we have a winner. It ain't the West. It ain't Afghans. Only Hamid Karzai wins this one.