Gearing Up for Elections

Friday, 1 September, 2006

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Khwaja Khalil

Yasmin teaches women in Kunduz province to read and write. Her students have already been able to put their newly acquired skills to use when they registered to vote in this week’s upcoming presidential election.

The 28-year-old instructor is very happy that she and all her students in the literacy course will be taking part in the ballot. “Now we understand,” she said, “that we can save our country from devastation in a practical way.”

Afghan citizens have never previously had the chance to directly elect a president, and they are seizing the chance in large numbers.

In a survey of 3,000 people in 21 provinces - conducted in mid-August by 100 journalists, as part of a workshop organised by IWPR on journalism and the presidential election - 82 per cent of respondents said they planned to vote.

Some 15 per cent said they didn’t intend to do so, either because they missed the chance to register or because they felt the election was meaningless. Some were women who said their husbands would not allow them to take part. Another 3 per cent weren’t sure or did not answer the question.

Those who said they would be voting mostly said they simply want to exercise their right to choose a president. Others said they would vote to bring about specific changes, such as peace. Some said they would participate because it was their duty.

“I must vote,” said a 60-year-old housewife in the Sirkh Road district of Nengarhar province. “I hope what they [candidates] say, they carry out.”

Dr Huria, 29, a doctor in Bamyan province, said she worked at a hospital even during the Taleban regime - but couldn’t vote. “We knew what our rights were, but nobody was giving it to us, ” she said. Now she is proudly registered

A 59-year-old unemployed man from Hadi Kali village in Nengarhar province said, “I got the [registration] card in order to select a good [leader] - in order to make progress for the country and people.”

In Mani village near Khost city, a 30-year-old labourer said he is proud to have a registration card. “I want to work in the shadow of a government which is made by us,” he said.

Others who registered didn’t really understand why they were doing it.

Gul Ahmad, 35, a resident of Arghandab district in Kandahar, said he is happy that he queued up for a registration card - but he does not know what is it for.

“I stood in line to get help,” he said, thinking that perhaps the card would make him eligible for food or other assistance. “After a long time they gave [one to] me, but they did not tell us what to do with it.”

Some who registered did so only to sell their vote. More than 10 million people registered, which exceeded estimates of the number expected to sign up. And there have been widespread accounts of them doing so several times in order to sell their cards to candidates. Presidential candidates needed to submit copies of 10,000 of these voter-registration documents in order to be placed on the ballot.

A 30-year-old man from Imam Sahib district in Kunduz said he registered only in order to sell his card. He said he knew of people who took two or three cards: “It was said that [they] could be sold later,” he said.

Although elections officials believe that every one eligible to vote has registered, many citizens surveyed – particularly women - said they didn’t signed up.

A 40-year-old woman in Nengarhar said her husband’s anger prevented her from registering. “My problem is that my husband is not permitting me to take part in the elections,” she said.

One woman, 25, from Nadir Shah Kot district in Khost province, only understood the meaning of the elections after talking to a reporter who was interviewing her for the survey. She said, “No one has come [to the village] to register my name.”

Some people missed the chance.

Awaz, 37, from Khuaja Musafer village in the Paghman district of Kabul, returned to Afghanistan in August after living abroad for eight years as a refugee. By then, the period to register to vote had already expired. “Being a refugee kept me from having card,” he said.

And some of those surveyed said they had not registered or would not vote because they had little confidence in the election process.

When asked if she had registered, Habiba, 51, from Kata Khan village in Bamyan, said, “What is it?”

When told registering would have allowed her to use her vote to choose the next president, she responded, “What have the previous ones done?” indicating she doubted any new president would be able to accomplish much in the country.

“The person I like is not a candidate and also he is in exile,” said a 25-year-old man from Khost, saying that he favoured Mullah Omar, the outlawed Taleban leader.

“All the politicians are cheaters,” said a 21-year-old woman in Herat.

A 42-year-old woman from Alingar in Laghman province said, “There is no candidate of my choice. Moreover, it depends on the choice of the Americans - the one whom they like will be chosen.”

Ziaullah, 37, from Khost, recalled the bad memories of the American war against the Taleban and al-Qaeda. “No matter who I vote for, the airplanes of the foreigners will be flying over our heads,” he said.

A 58-year-old man from Paghman who had a registration card said, “I don’t know whom I should vote for. No one [of previous leaders] has ever helped us, everyone came and threw a punch on our face.”

Some complained that they have felt pressured to register.

Amir Muhammad, 42, from Helmand province, said he was stopped three times by police who asked if he had registered to vote. The registration centre was nearby, so he finally went along to get his card. “I didn’t want to….because all of the candidates are those whom can’t be trusted,” he said.

Qahir Wasfi, chairman of the election committee in Khandahar regional office, said, “We didn’t make register by force.”

Abdul Sami Raufi, the director of Kandahar public health, denied claims that patients without registration cards were not treated. He said registration teams had been sent to the hospitals “to make it easy for the patients to get cards”.

Qutbuddin Qaem, a member of the election commission, said the election laws protect the right of every citizen to vote freely and in secret. There won’t be any kind of linguistic, religious, national, tribal or social restrictions on voters or candidates, he said.

Khwaja Khalil Fitri is an IWPR trainer in Kabul.