More Evidence of Helmand Poll Fraud

I know there was no fraud in Nad Ali,” said Hajji Dastagir, a local candidate in Afghanistan’s August 20 elections. “No ballot boxes were stuffed at the polling centres. The election workers brought boxes in that were already filled.”



Almost two weeks after Afghanistan’s presidential and provincial council elections, it is clear is that the process was badly flawed. Allegations of widespread fraud continue to plague the Electoral Complaints Commission, which has so far received more than 2,500 official complaints.



The results are being dribbled out, with half the count already released. As of Tuesday, September 1, president Hamed Karzai held a comfortable, but not overwhelming, lead of just under 46 percent of the votes to just over 33 per cent for his chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah.



The process is going so slowly that most observers think there is little chance that the Independent Election Commission will be able to meet its deadline of September 17 for proclamation of official results. By that time, all complaints are supposed to have been vetted and investigated, and a determination made as to the credibility of the ballot.



If neither candidiate clears 50 percent-plus-one, a runoff will be held sometime in early October. While election experts are hopeful that a second round might give the poll a greater semblance of legitimacy, other observers worry that, given Afghanistan’s increasingly precarious security situation, a runoff might become a flashpoint for popular discontent.



Meanwhile, the two frontrunners are engaged in a war of nerves: Abdullah has complained widely to the media that his victory is being stolen from him, while Karzai is insisting just as vehemently that he is the legitimate choice of the Afghan people.



Supporters of both men have stated publicly that they will not accept defeat, and early fears that the elections could lead to violence have been resurrected.



But, if Helmand, arguably Afghanistan’s most volatile province, is any indication, it will be a long, tough fight before a winner can be declared.



Voters stayed at home in droves on election day in Helmand, cowed by Taleban threats or, perhaps, unprepared to consider risking their lives for a government that seems to have done little to help and protect them over the past eight years. Recent military operations have ostensibly cleared part of the province, but the retreating or defeated Taleban have retaliated by turning the province into a minefield.



Some estimates put the turnout as low as 5-10 percent.



Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of votes are being counted, with observers crying foul.



“From morning till evening on election day, only 47 votes were cast in our entire polling centre,” said Muzhtaba, who worked in a polling site in the Chanjir area of Nad Ali district. “But when the boxes were opened, we saw none that did not have several hundred ballots. All of the boxes were stuffed by the heads of polling stations.”



He shook his head in disgust.



“I am sorry that I participated in this process,” he said.



But Abdullah Ahad Helmandwal, head of the Nad Ali shura, or council, insisted that the vote had been transparent.



“Nobody can prove that even one vote was faked,” he said.



Still, dozens of witnesses have come forward to tell their stories.



“I was registering voters in one of the sites in Nad Ali,” said Muzamel Shukri. “A local commander brought me forms full of hundreds of voter registration card numbers. I refused to give him the ballots, but then the head of the site, who is a poor teacher, came to me, very frightened, and said ‘do whatever (he) says’.”



In Nawa district, which had been the scene of a major offensive against the Taleban just days before the election, the situation was much the same. Helmand governor Gulab Mangal visited Nawa on election day, accompanied by a group of journalists.



One election worker, who did not want to be named, said that only 240 voters had turned up at the Nawa high school, the district’s main polling centre.



“But all the ballot boxes are full,” he said.



Engineer Abdul Hadi, who heads Helmand’s election commission, rejects any allegations that his staff were involved in falsifying the vote.



“There was so little fraud it cannot even be measured,” he said. “If anyone says anything different, let them prove it. Otherwise, it’s a lie and we do not accept it.”



Members of the provincial council were not at all reticent with their accusations.



“In Sangin, Nawa and Nad Ali there was huge fraud carried out by Karzai supporters,” said Adam Sefatullah. “They cast all the votes for the nation, with their hands in the ballot boxes. I am ready to swear to this.”



In Nahr-e-Saraj and Qala-e-Bost the story was the same.



“What elections?” laughed a man from Nahr-e-Seraj, who was carrying a green sack of food on his back. “There was just the mafia there. Everybody was stuffing ballot boxes, and all the votes went to one man. Mr President.”



The reporters who produced this story have asked that their names be withheld for reasons of security.