Hamid Karzai has been returned as president of Afghanistan for a second time a little earlier than scheduled. It was the chance withdrawal of his competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, from the run-off on November 7 that has cut short his waiting time. But the sudden cancellation of the second round, courtesy what is being bandied about as the political sagacity of Mr Abdullah, has perhaps done greater damage to Mr Karzai’s public standing than the first round of polls in August. For one, Mr Karzai assumes office with less than 50 per cent of the votes polled (the mandate would appear more abysmal if one takes into account the fact that only a third of the eligible voting population had cast its ballot). A run-off, although no less sullied or violent than the first round, could have given Mr Karzai a chance to improve on this dubious tally. Ironically, the circus over the scheduling and then the cancellation of the run-off has incontrovertibly established an image of the president that he has been desperately trying to escape — that of being a manipulator and a stooge of his Western allies. Together with the image trap, one may add to Mr Karzai’s woes the threat from a strengthened opposition under Mr Abdullah, now firmly on the moral high horse. Like the Taliban, who are congratulating themselves on upsetting the applecart of the West by preventing the formation of a representative government, Mr Karzai’s political rivals have tasted blood. They are not going to make it easy for the president to achieve his first target of making the government as inclusive as possible.

But even if this first target were to be achievable, Mr Karzai would find it difficult to meet the summary demands that have been put before him by his allies, almost immediately on accession. He is to rid his government of corruption, and make it possible for the Afghan army to take on the responsibilities of the Western troops. The targets are laudable. It would not only make Mr Karzai’s government more acceptable to the public, but also smoothen the exit of Nato countries from Afghanistan’s soil. To cleanse the administration, however, Mr Karzai has to go after his own brother, his trusted warlords and governors, without whom it would have been impossible for him to win the elections. Quite certainly, a second term has complicated matters for both the president and his backers in the West.