Security Worries Raised at Afghan Election Debate

Civil society activists and university students in Balkh province, northern Afghanistan, used an IWPR debate to talk about security challenges around next year’s crucial presidential election.

They were attending the first in a cycle of discussion meetings which IWPR will be running in Balkh, as well as in other Afghan provinces. Election officials and Islamic scholars also took part in the debate.

Although Balkh province is calmer than most, members of the audience raised concerns that voter registration centres had not been opened in five districts there. This could mean that people in those areas cannot obtain voting cards, excluding them from the process.

Ezzatollah Arman, representing the Afghanistan Independent Election Commission, confirmed that this was the case, explaining that the security forces had been unable to offer assurances that the districts concerned were safe. As a stopgap, he said, the election authority was considering opening centres in areas close to the problematic districts that people could go there to register.

Answering a question put to him by a student, Arman insisted that the risk of election fraud had been minimised by the systems put in place. Voters would either have electronic identity cards, or should be recorded as having taken part in previous elections.

A female civil society activist called Nilofar highlighted the particular risks facing women, saying that the presence of irregular armed groups and general instability were likely to make it hard for them to go and vote. She also spoke of the need to target women with education programmes about their legal rights.

Mohammad Arif Anwari is a student of journalism in Balkh province.

This report was produced as part of Open Minds: Speaking Up, Reaching Out – Promoting University and Youth Participation in Afghan Elections, an IWPR initiative funded by the US embassy in Kabul.