THE UNITED NATIONS Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has a mandate to encourage “free, fair, inclusive and transparent elections.’’ But according to the mission’s number-two official, former US diplomat Peter Galbraith of Cambridge, the United Nations is prepared to accede to fraudulent vote counts in last month’s presidential election. This is deeply wrong. As President Obama faces a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, the flagrant cheating in favor of President Hamid Karzai, a US ally, is a grim sign that political reconciliation is a long way off.

Galbraith favored a tough stance against fraud, and rightly so. In one polling center Karzai got 4,054 of 4,054 votes cast. In Kandahar province, where 25,000 people voted, more than 250,000 votes were recorded for Karzai. So Galbraith prodded the Afghan election commission - six of whose seven members are Karzai loyalists - to throw out transparently bogus results from about 1,000 of 6,500 polling stations and to recount ballots from as many as 5,000 others. Had the commission done so, Karzai likely would face a runoff against his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Galbraith returned home to New England after his boss, UN official Kai Eide of Norway, insisted that the mission allow the Afghan election commission to proceed with a pro forma recount of votes from only 10 to 15 percent of polling stations - not the sweeping exclusion of obviously bogus ballots that Galbraith sought. The foreseeable outcome of the United Nations’ capitulation will be a first-round victory for Karzai.

Eide may believe he is helping Afghans avoid political turmoil while also deflecting charges of foreign interference in Afghan affairs. But a fraudulent re-election of Karzai will only increase popular discontent with his government, exacerbate ethnic enmities, and undermine international support for Afghanistan’s fight against the Taliban.

President Obama should do what Galbraith wanted the UN mission to do: forcefully condemn Karzai’s massive fraud and press hard for a clean vote. Peace and stability will never come from an Afghan government that keeps itself in power through fraud.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.