Pre-election surveys show Afghans perceive widespread government corruption
President Hamid Karzai last week vowed to remove the "dark stain" of corruption from Afghanistan in his second five-year term. Gallup surveys in Afghanistan underscore the enormity of the challenge Karzai faces in keeping this promise. Roughly 8 in 10 Afghans (81%) interviewed in June before the fraud-marred August election said corruption is widespread throughout the country's government.
In the contentious post-election environment in which Karzai starts his new term, concrete efforts to honor this pledge may help resurrect some of his credibility among disaffected Afghans. But to do this, Gallup's surveys suggest the president will need to seriously tackle graft in his country, as well as his previous administration's record. At the time of the survey, about 7 in 10 (69%) Afghans continued to say the government is not doing enough to fight corruption -- essentially unchanged from 2008.
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