Jenny Francis, Kabul
"As a matter of fact, it doesn't bother me. If Afghans have two registration cards and if they would like to vote twice, well, welcome. This is an exercise in democracy. Let them exercise it twice." These were comments from interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai, when asked at an August 11 press conference about the impact of multiple voter registration on the results of Afghanistan's presidential election.
On October 9, Afghanistan held its first presidential election in some 25 years. However, forced into a process and timeline to suit the United States, Afghans know "their" election is gravely flawed, even before the results are known.
For a start, the practice of multiple registrations was rife. UN spokesperson Manoel de Almeida e Silva admitted: "Probably there is a lot of multiple registering. This is not perfect." Many people have openly declared the benefits of obtaining numerous registration cards, which could be sold to parties or candidates for up to US$150. In a country where most people live below the $2 a day poverty line, selling a voter registration card is a logical thing to do.
Numerous reports note that UN registration teams did not check if a person has registered previously. One woman, for example, said her nephew had been approached at school numerous times to sell his laminated voting card, and that she knows a woman who obtained 40 registration cards while cloaked in a burqa.
The US-backed Karzai claimed this problem would have little impact on the election results. "If somebody gives me three cards, I will take it and will go and vote", he said at the August 11 press conference. "But my choice in voting will be the same. We are beginning an exercise. We cannot be perfect." When a reporter challenged him, saying that Karzai was describing "a farce" election, the US-appointed interim president said the Afghan people are enthusiastic and simply want to have more cards.
The novelty of this election and this "enthusiasm" to participate also extended to the registration of candidates. One key prerequisite for registration for presidential candidate was the submission of 10,000 photocopies of the voter registration cards of party members or supporters. This provided proof of a sufficient voter base.
Abdul Hafiz Mansur, a presidential candidate from the Panjshir Valley, brazenly or naively explained that after he presented his 10,000 photocopied voter registration cards to the electoral commission, he found he had more than enough. "We gave some of the extra ones to the [electoral] commission, just in case they say one is not correct. We also gave some to other candidates, who were short of cards. I don't want to name them."
'Massive voter registration'
The UN, the interim Afghan government and Western officials have been obsessed and boastful about the "massive voter registration", which supposedly reached some 9.5 million people — more than the country's entire eligible voting population. Given that women, who constitute 60% of the population, represent only 41% of those registered, clearly millions of eligible Afghan women have not been registered. It is apparent to all that the much-vaunted registration figure is false.
The Taliban vowed to thwart the election, and killed at least 11 UN voter registration staff prior to it. The Taliban's threats were particularly aimed at women. "It's obvious we are afraid", a women voter registrar at an election site inside a school told the August 8 London Daily Telegraph. "On average we get 10 to 12 women a day, which is not bad. But we go from house to house to tell women to come. The mullahs don't like it, and a lot of women come in secret because they are too scared."
In an attempt to counter Taliban threats, in some cases the US military provided support for the registration teams. In July, for example, the US Army's 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, backed by Black Hawk helicopters and B-1 bombers, entered the remote towns of Arghandab and Khak-e-Afghan, in Zabul province. They temporarily wrested control of the towns from the Taliban to allow the registration to take place. Despite this incursion, less than half the eligible 124,000 voters in Zabul received their registration cards and only 8% of them were given to women.
The participation of Afghan women in the election will be used by the White House and the US corporate media to push the notion that the US-led invasion "liberated" Afghan women. However, only one dollar out of every US$5,000 ($112,500 out of $650 million) of US financial aid sent to Afghanistan in 2002 was actually given to women's organisations. In 2003, according to Ritu Sharma, executive director of the Women's Edge Coalition, that amount was reduced to $90,000.
Studies by groups like Amnesty International reveal that violence against women has actually surged since the fall of the Taliban, with an escalation in the number of girls and young women abducted and forced into marriage, with collusion from the government authorities (those who resist are often imprisoned).
In a public opinion survey conducted in July by the Asia Foundation, 72% of respondents said that men should advise women on their voting choices and 87% of all Afghans interviewed said women would need their husband's permission to vote. On International Women's Day this year, Karzai only encouraged such attitudes. He implored men to allow their wives and sisters to register to vote, assuring them, "later, you can control who she votes for, but please, let her go [to register]".
Karzai likely winner
On October 9, Afghans had a choice between one of 18 presidential candidates. Karzai, Washington's favourite, comes from an influential, southern, Afghan family of Pashtun ethnic origin (the largest ethnic group, 42% of the population). Given his ethnic origin, his current role, along with substantial US advice and funds, he will be the likely winner.
Karzai foremost opponents were the country's most powerful warlords. The candidates thought likely to win most votes after Karzai were Yunus Quanooni, Tajik warlord and former education minister; the well-known General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an unpredictable commander from the Uzbek minority; and Mohammad Mohaqiq, a Hazara. Each of these men has their own ethnic base, with private armies to ensure compliance.
The US has backed all of these warlord candidates at one stage or another, and is indebted to them for their assistance in ousting the Taliban in 2001. Yet, throughout the campaign, Karzai, with "urging" from Western donors, has broken ties with these commanders, and is hoping to win the presidency without their support.
Few doubt that Karzai will be the winner. The question is whether he can do so in the first round, or whether he will have to go to a run-off several weeks later if he fails to garner the required 51% of the vote in the first round.
A dark horse in the campaign was Dr Massouda Jalal, the only woman candidate. "I can win on October 9 because I am a woman, and in Afghanistan it is only women who have no blood on their hands", she declared in an interview with the British Independent newspaper.
Of all the candidates, she is one of the few to run on an anti- warlord platform. "I don't want Afghanistan to be a land of terrorists and drug dealers", Jalal told the Independent. "I want it to be a modern cultured society."
Jalal was also the only candidate without bodyguards, despite the murderous threats against women brave enough to stand up to armed factions. Karzai, by contrast, has a "platoon" of US bodyguards, and has been unable to leave Kabul during the campaign for fear of his life.
Jalal demonstrated bravery as a doctor in Kabul during the civil war in the early 1990s, then ran the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' office under the Taliban, who forced her to wear a burqa and once jailed her for a few days.
Many observers in Afghanistan believe the ground work needed for a free and fair election — security, reconstruction and political stability has not been established, and that the rush to the polls on October 9 fits well with US President George Bush's agenda. For months, Bush and other Western leaders have staked their claims on a successful election in Afghanistan, saying it would serve as an example of how the US and "the coalition of the willing" can bring "democracy" to Iraq.
The organisation of an election in Afghanistan will be used by Washington and its allies to retrospectively justify their invasion of the country, and be used by the White House to boost Bush's chances in the November 2 US presidential election.
However, with scarce funds and no plans for rebuilding Afghanistan, many Afghans did not see the election as their top priority, and question the value and legitimacy of the process, even before the results are known.
From Green Left Weekly, October 13, 2004.
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