Much More to Be Done Before Vote

While the Afghan government has cited technical and logistical problems for the latest delay in the forthcoming parliamentary election, many believe the decision reflects the continued weakness of central authority outside the capital.

"The warlords are still in power and have still not disarmed completely," said Abdul Khaliq Nemat, who heads Hezb-e-Hambastagi, the National Coordination Party. "It will thus be difficult for people to get their own representatives into the parliament."

The parliamentary ballot was originally scheduled on October 9, 2004, the same day as the presidential election that was won by Hamed Karzai. It was later postponed until May this year.

Government officials then blamed the harsh winter conditions for delaying the completion of a national census, needed to establish voting districts. So on March 15, the national election commission announced that it was pushing back the vote until September 18.

Voters will choose delegates to 34 provincial assemblies as well as to the national People's Assembly or Wolesi Jirga.

The count has now been completed, said Abdul Jabar Eshaq Zai, a deputy in the central census department, and will soon be turned over to the electoral commission.

"Logistical, technical and census problems, and the inability to set boundaries for provinces and districts, caused the elections to be postponed," Besmillah Besmil, chief of the Electoral Commission, told IWPR.

But both Afghans and international officials cited safety worries as the main reason for the delay.

“Security issues, a lack of clearly delineated voting districts and the incomplete registration process of the emigrants are the technical problems,” said Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the departing spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

In particular, he said the government must be able to guarantee that candidates are protected, that they can campaign in a peaceful atmosphere, and that voters can make choices without fear of coercion.

While acknowledging that many factions remain armed, Lutfullah Mashal, a spokesman for the interior ministry, discounted security concerns, and said his ministry was prepared to safeguard voters in all the country’s provinces.

A 1,000-man rapid reaction force, 35,000 well-trained policemen and nearly 45,000 former police officers eligible for duty, should be enough to deter disruptions, Mashal said. While international coalition soldiers will be available to help, the Afghan police will provide the security at polling stations, as they did in the presidential election.

Some Karzai opponents also played down the security issue, claiming the president was using the delays in order to influence the election's outcome in his favour.

"President Karzai wants to set up his own supporters for the upcoming parliamentary elections," said Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, a failed candidate in the presidential election and former deputy head of Ittihad-e-Islami, a fundamentalist party.

Abdul Baseer Saeed is an IWPR staff writer in Kabul.