Fear and apathy
In the 2004 Afghan election, thousands filled streets that are now empty -- gloom has replaced hope and pride
An Afghan girl waits as her mother votes in the presidential election Thursday in Kabul. Many stations were empty due to threats of violence by the Taliban.
Photograph by: Daniel Berehulak, Getty Images, Citizen Special
What a different Kabul scene Thursday from the day of the first Afghan presidential election in 2004, when braving a bitter cold October day, hundreds of men and women lined up peacefully to exercise their rights to vote -- proud citizens of a newly born nation.
No gun barrels were needed for the voting day. Streets were full of children, girls and boys, clasping hands of their parents, walking to the polling stations. Their giggles as they played outside while their parents voted created an atmosphere of mirth and glee. Traffic in the streets was thick. It was a victory day for democracy.
Five years have passed since that memorable day in 2004. What do we see on the day of the second presidential election? It is a peak summer day, heat oozing out of the ground and screeching out of the sky, with occasional swirling dust storms, blinding vision. Normally crowded city streets are eerily deserted, with more soldiers and police than pedestrians. Foreigners' luxury SUVs have disappeared. All foreign agencies, firms, donor institutions and embassies are locked down -- a no-movement order. Many foreigners have left the country.
The polls opened and closed in Kabul in an environment of gloom. But one welcome change was the Afghan face of the election. The Independent Election Commission and Afghan police and army managed to pull off a fairly smooth operation, without a dominant presence by the UN staff or the foreign troopers.
Afghans have travelled to this day, eight winters after the launch of the promise of enduring peace. But peace did not endure -- threats and violence escalated. It was predicted that a low percentage would cast their ballots, braving the Taliban threats of cutting off the fingers of those with marks of the indelible ink.
The Taliban threatened to target high-profile locations and polling stations in schools and other facilities, with the aim to destroy them permanently, especially in the south. They did not issue empty threats. A bomb was successfully detonated in the middle of Kabul, past a number of checkpoints, in one of the most visibly and highly guarded locations of the city, during the peak traffic hour, on the doorstep of a foreign military camp, causing high casualties; a NATO convoy was attacked in bright daylight on a busy street, killing 10 people, including a foreign soldier, Afghan UN staff and other civilians; a rocket attack at the heart of the city targeted the Presidential Palace -- all in one week, leading to the election day.
In an unprecedented and historic move, the government deployed thousands of soldiers and police in Kabul. Some Afghans questioned the efficacy of holding an election at the point of the gun. Spectacular attacks were expected from the Taliban, with warnings from the government that the enemy should expect spectacular responses.
Security threats prevented opening at least 500 polling stations. There are reports of rocket attacks across the country and IED explosions, and some casualties on this day of the election.
The western-financed election support institutions, such as the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, were busy hustling the foreign VIP observers in and out of a luxury five-star hotel. Afghans say that the trips to polling stations by observers with convoys of armoured cars and armed bodyguards put Afghan voters' lives in jeopardy because such high-profile visits make these polling stations easy targets of the Taliban.
Voter turnout appears to be better than expected, yet, it is patchy at best, with higher polling rates in the north and Herat than in the south and the east. Beating all apprehensions about inadequate women's participation, female voters did turn out although in smaller numbers than in 2004. Overall, voter queue sizes were miniscule compared to those in 2004. Both fear and apathy played roles in keeping the voters away.
The question remains how representative will a government elected out of this process be? The percentage of voter turnout will provide a partial answer. But pre-election discussions with Afghans conveyed a clear message that many have lost faith in a democratic process that fails to protect citizens' rights.
The government asked the media to not publicize incidents of violence so that fear would not keep the public away from voting. Human rights activists and the media expressed their objection to this notice, which is equal to media censorship and a violation of people's right to monitor the countrywide situation on the day of the election.
The Afghan media played a surprisingly high-profile, useful and objective role in giving a modern democratic flavour to that first, well-contested presidential election in 2004. This last-minute semi-censorship violates the freedom of the media, an essential element of a credible democratic process marked by a free and fair election.
The credibility of the election process has also been hampered by the sale of hundreds of voting cards and the buying of block votes with offers of thousands of dollars to tribal leaders. Three million ghost voters are listed in the voter registry.
The argument has been that since all candidates or their supporters have been involved in these practices, there is a balancing act. But has the spirit of free elections not been violated?
This leads us to question the readiness of the country to go to the polls. But was there an alternative to the election? The instrument is not wrong. The process is flawed. Should the people not be given the opportunity to express their will through the use of the instrument of the election to demand changes and reforms, however faulty the process might be?
The potential for a second round of voting remains strong as the lead candidate, President Hamid Karzai, might not get more than 50 per cent of the votes. Whoever is the eventual winner, he must make governance and justice reforms, strengthening of security, and the betterment of living conditions for the people the highest priorities.
Despite the investment of millions of dollars in elections, the institutions to protect people's rights are not yet in place. Billions of dollars of aid still leaves a third of the Afghan public in poverty -- aid spending has been ineffective.
Addressing these issues will in fact strengthen the democratic mobilization process, as we can see in northern Afghanistan. News stories from the secure and more developed northern provinces and Herat are conveying the message that Afghans in the economically better off and more secure northern region and in Herat are politically mobilized enough to not be deterred by fear or bribes -- they rallied to the polling stations to deliver their verdict. It is a lesson to be learned by the international community and Afghan leaders alike: democracy thrives when there is economic and social development to support it.
Nipa Banerjee formerly served as the head of Canada's aid program in Kabul (2003-'06). She now teaches at the School of International Development at the University of Ottawa. She was in Kabul to observe the Afghan presidential election.
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Education for Liberation! Venceremos Unidos!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Yahoo Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com
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