Fixing mad match

The re-election of Mr Karzai, a clear favourite in this week’s vote, would in part be an expression of that desire. A small-time leader in the anti-Soviet jihad, from a noble Pushtun family, he was installed as Afghanistan’s leader by America in 2001. As a symbol, then, of international support for the country—and not for anything he achieved, while mostly confined for fear of assassination in his Kabul palace—Mr Karzai went on to win Afghanistan’s inaugural presidential election in 2004. He has achieved little since, presiding over a spread of narco-corruption by which he seems blithely unperturbed. In July Mr Karzai pardoned five well-connected drug-traffickers who had been imprisoned for up to 18 years for attempting to trade heroin for two truckloads of sub-machineguns. These convictions had been considered a groundbreaking success for Afghan counter-narcotics efforts.