Campaign Adverts Swamp Capital

Friday, 18 November, 2005

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Amanullah Nasrat

Election posters in Kabul.

The candidate in the main poster is Younus Qanuni. Pictures by Jean MacKenzie.

They are everywhere, a new phenomenon in every city, town and village in Afghanistan. Pasted on walls and shops, they also cover traffic signs, lurk high in tree branches, obscure the doors to people's homes, and reduce drivers' vision as they block car windows.

And as fast as some go up, others are torn down or defaced. There is a childish touch of humour in the moustaches and beards added to the faces of women staring out stolidly at passers-by.

They are the posters for parliamentary and provincial council candidates standing in the September 18 elections – an avalanche of paper that outdoes even last October's presidential campaign. That election was contested by 18 candidates; these ones involve 6,000, with some 400 standing in Kabul alone.

Some of the posters in the capital are huge and visible from hundreds of metres away. One in particular has drawn the crowds, who stand gaping. Its contents are no great attraction; it is the sheer novelty of an electronic billboard which changes every five seconds.

As the city disappears under a wave of wannabe politicians' faces, many observers believe the spending has gone mad, making a joke of the limits imposed by the Joint Election Management Body, JEMB.

Each parliamentary candidate is allowed 750,000 afghanis (about 15,000 US dollars) and each provincial candidate 375,000 afghanis (about 7,600 dollars).

Kabul’s city authorities are despairing. Senior official Mohammad Asef Akbari said they had allocated specific places for posters in 18 districts of the city and had passed the details to the election commission. But no one took any notice.

“We can’t do anything now. I guess that they will even paste their posters up on people’s coats,” he said wryly.

If candidates do spend too much, it doesn't seem to matter, at least for the moment. Complaints commission member Farid Hamidi confirms that going over the cash limit is against the election law and that the body has received complaints.

But he acknowledges that they have not decided what to do about them, and adds, “The punishment for candidates who contravene the election law is still not clear.”

The novelty of the electronic poster has also ensured that it has drawn debate on its likely cost. Located in Pul-e-Bagh-e-Umumi, in the heart of Kabul city, it switches every five seconds between different pictures of candidate Mohammad Younus Qanuni, who is now running for parliament after coming a distant second in the presidential contest.

One man carefully studying the repetitive shots wondered aloud about the cost. “Posters like this show that the candidates are overspending and are most likely breaking the campaigning law. He [Qanuni] would probably have spent thousands of dollars on this poster," commented Abbas Ghiasi.

"What will the candidates do in future when they get access to the government and its treasury? If all the candidates are overspending on posters, what will be the future of parliament and this poor nation?”

Qanuni told IWPR he was not overspending on posters - electronic or otherwise - despite the fact it is impossible to avoid his face, smiling at voters throughout the city.

"I completely reject this; it’s propaganda by my rivals against me," he said, adding that he had no idea how much money had gone into promoting his quest for votes and that the question should go to his campaign manager.

In turn, he charged that some other candidates, who were holding parties and feeding people to try to win support, must be overspending.

"I haven't been feeding anybody or throwing parties, and the cost of the electronic sign has been paid for by an Afghan businessman named Engineer Atiq," he said.

Qanuni’s campaign manager, Ali Yar, refuses to say what the electronic billboard cost or how much they have spent in total, "The campaign is still going on, so we can’t give you any information on how much we’ve spent so far.”

The state-run Afghan Elanat, Afghan Advertisements, which was responsible for the electronic sign, was also coy. "We cannot give anyone information about these contracts," said Mohammad Rafi, a senior official there.

Engineer Maullah Gul is one parliamentary candidate in Kabul who says some of his rivals are spending too much. “Some candidates are spending 1,000 dollars a day inviting people out to eat,” he said.

So far, he has spent 6,000 dollars on his campaign. That includes 10,000 printed posters, but he says 80 per cent of them have been torn down and he cannot afford to replace them.

Fatehullah Albari, another parliamentary candidate in the capital, has had 3,000 coloured posters printed so far and insists that some people are spending far more on their campaigns, "There are some who have spent twice as much money as the limit set by the JEMB.”

As torn posters flap in the wind, interior ministry press officer Raz Mohammad Rasa told the IWPR reporter that candidates had the right to paste up placards anywhere, whether owned by the government or not.

He said there was no punishment laid down for those who tear them down, “If a candidate complains to us that his posters are being torn down, then we will look into the matter."

Qiamuddin, a 37-year-old Kabul resident, said those who destroyed or defaced others' posters showed no respect for each other and could hardly be expected to respect the nation and its people.

“I think a boxing or wrestling ring should be set up for them in parliament because most of them are local commanders and they will make parliament into a battlefield,” he commented.

Wakil Gul Agha, competing for one of Kabul's 33 parliamentary seats, believes he has little chance. He bemoans the state of his posters, saying he had not been able to print good quality ones to compete with those of rich candidates, many of whom must have overspent.

“People are going for those candidates who have printed good and expensive posters. No one cares about the poor and weak candidates,” he said.

At the Ahmadi printing shop on Sadarat crossroads, 18 people are working flat out on eight machines, churning out posters for the poll. The boss, Haji Sayed Ahmad, was working alongside, able only to spare two minutes to talk.

Speaking of printing costs, he said one A4-size flyer costs around eight afghanis (15 US cents) although this depends on the quality of the paper. The other popular size, A2, goes for 10 afghanis. The print shop charges 10 dollars for working out a design.

“There are some candidates for whom we have printed 1,000 posters and there are some other rich ones who have had 50,000 posters done, which cost them 8,000 dollars,” said Sayed Ahmad.

Outside, away from the clatter of printing presses, one passer-by casting a jaundiced eye on a wall festooned with posters asked simply, "Who is going to clear up this mess?"

Amanullah Nasrat is an IWPR reporter in Kabul.