Afghan Elections 2009

[Ibne Khaldoon]

Afghans vote despite sporadic violence


Thursday, 20 Aug, 2009 | 10:07 AM PST |

KABUL: Two Taliban insurgents were killed in a gunbattle in the Afghan capital on Thursday as millions voted in an anxiously awaited presidential election marked by sporadic violence across the country.



The Kabul attack, coming after the Taliban said 20 of their fighters had infiltrated the capital, was the worst of several on polling stations and voters, mainly in the south and east.



Despite the violence, the United Nations said there were encouraging signs of high turnout.



‘The vast majority of polling stations have been able to open and have received voting materials,’ said Aleem Siddique, spokesman for the UN mission in Kabul.



‘...we are seeing queues forming at polling stations in the north, also in the capital, as well as, encouragingly, in the east.’



President Hamid Karzai cast his ballot under tight security at a high school in Kabul, telling reporters he hoped for an outright majority in a single round.



He faces an unexpectedly strong challenge from former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, and polls suggest he may not get enough votes to avoid a second round run-off, likely in October. Preliminary results are not expected for at least two weeks.



The election is also a test for US President Barack Obama, who has ordered a massive troop build-up this year as part of a strategy to reverse Taliban gains.



Obama's envoy for the region, Richard Holbrooke, toured polling stations in Kabul, and said what he'd seen was ‘open and honest’, adding: ‘So far every prediction of disaster turned out to be wrong.’



Kabul shootout



As he spoke, two Taliban fighters were engaged in a shootout with Afghan forces in the capital. Abdullah Uruzgani, a police battalion commander, told Reuters the two were later killed, while unconfirmed reports said one had blown himself up with a bomb-laden suicide vest and the other had been shot dead.



Attacks have increased in the weeks leading to the poll, with fighters mounting two big suicide car-bomb strikes and a building siege inside the normally secure capital.



Security in most of the country is still better than it was in Iraq when several successful elections were held there, but the Taliban may be able to damage the vote even without big attacks if their threats keep people from the ballot box.

But many Afghans said attacks would not keep them from voting.



‘The Afghan people are used to living under the worst circumstances of insecurity and fighting, why should they be afraid to come out and vote?’ said Sayed Mustafa, a Kabul student, showing off his ink-stained finger that proved he had voted.



In northern Baghlan province, Taliban guerrillas attacked a police post, killing a district police chief.



Rockets hit the cities of Kandahar, Laskar Gah, Ghazni and Kunduz, where two election observers were wounded at a polling station. In the city of Gardez, a police official said two suicide bombers on motorcycles blew themselves up but failed to hit their target and caused no casualties.



A bomb went off in the provincial police headquarters in northern Takhar province causing damage but no casualties, provincial police chief Ziauddin Mahmoudi said.



More than 30,000 US troops have arrived in Afghanistan this year, raising the size of the international force above 100,000 for the first time, including 63,000 Americans.

US General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, could ask for more when he issues a report next week.



He told the BBC: ‘The situation is serious and we need to turn the momentum of the enemy, but we can do that.’



A new poll in the Washington Post found 51 per cent of Americans believe the war is not worth fighting, and only a quarter favour sending more troops.



The Afghan government has requested international and domestic media not report violence during polling hours, a ban that the United Nations says it has asked authorities to lift.

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[Ibne Khaldoon]

Kabul-based Maysam Najafizada describes how Afghanistan’s second presidential election is unfolding in Kabul.

On the day of the presidential elections in Afghanistan, Kabul city was quiet early in the morning, around 6:00 a.m. local time. There were very few cars on the streets and tight security all around. Vehicles were checked every three to four kilometres in various districts of Kabul. The security of the central Shahr-e Naw and Wazir Akbar Khan area of Kabul was particularly tight, and only a handful of locals dared to roam about. Journalists, however, ventured out to polling stations in central parts of Kabul to see how the start of the voting process would be.

Earlier on in the day, voter turnout was low. But slowly, groups of people were seen heading to polling stations in various parts of Kabul. In the fifth district of the city – the mountainous Afshar region – both men and women queuing up to cast their votes as early as 7:30 in the morning.

Coming out of the Jaghori-ha Mosque polling station, Ghulam Sarwar Hasanzada said he was proud to vote for the second presidential elections and hoped to see a change. He added that he tried to clean his finger to make sure the ink could be removed, but he could not do so. Strangely enough, the indelible ballot ink is proving quite the annoyance for many Afghans.

But Kabulis arriving at polling stations had bigger problems than ink stains on their thumbs. Although the Jaghori-ha poll was open, three of the four booths installed there were not working because of technical problems with the card punch system. Mumtaz Ahmad, the head of the polling centre, explained, ‘We are having technical problems with the punch. We have contacted our district focal center and reported our problem, but we have not received any response yet.’

Interestingly, in an effort to make the voting as inclusive as possible, the Afghan election authorities are willing to improvise. About half an hour after Ahmad registered the complaint, the polling centre he was overseeing was authorised to cut off the edges of voting cards with scissors. The goal: to make the three other voting stations operative as soon as possible, thereby reducing the waiting time for voters.

Meanwhile, Hamid Karzai appeared in a school near the presidential palace and encouraged the Afghan people to vote for the future of their country. ‘I request my dear countrymen to come out and cast their vote to decide their future,’ he said. ‘God willing, this will be for peace, for progress, and for the well-being of the Afghan people. Vote, No violence.’

In another polling station, Dr Abdullah Abdullah – Karzai’s main challenger – appeared to cast his vote with his wife. This is the first time that an Afghan presidential candidate is voting along with his wife. Dr Abdullah and his wife entered the polling station holding hands with their son, Sultan. Journalists thronging the polling center were quick to ask the presidential candidate why he had brought his son, but not his daughters, to the polling station. Dr Abdullah was quick to respond: ‘I have brought my son to give him the impression of democracy and voting for the presidency in our country and I haven’t brought my daughters because they were not at home.’

Wearing an Iranian-style scarf, a green coat and black pants, Dr Abdullah’s wife came up with a more politic response: ‘Women make up 50 per cent of Afghan society and [my presence] is to give a message to Afghan women to take part in the elections.’

Outside the polling station, people were again fretting about the ink stains on their thumbs. One man was showing off a finger that was partially cleaned after he had cast his vote. ‘The ink can be cleaned with Gulrang [an Iranian bleach],” said Sher Alam, brandishing his finger and reassuring others, even though lines of the dark brown ink could be seen on the edge of his finger.

One of Dr Abdullah’s body guards chose to address the public’s concerns about the voting ink, and was seen holding a bottle of Gulrang bleach outside a polling centre. He was showing the bottle to voters and journalists, telling them that the bleach liquid could clean the indelible ink from voters’ fingers.

Overall, despite a slow beginning to Afghanistan’s historic second election – along with sporadic violence and widespread concerns about ink-stained fingers – the number of people participating has been slowly increasing all day. Even now, polling stations in Kabul and the northern and eastern provinces are abuzz with voters.

http://blog.dawn.com:91/dblog/2009/0...ling-for-hope/