By Abdulhadi Hairan

‘Have not you ever seen a woman casting vote?’ asked an angry BB Jamila who was surrounded by an army of reporters and cameramen the moment she stepped inside Zarghoona High School at Shahr-e-Naw, Kabul. The reporters inundated her with questions she had never heard and had never expected that she would face such a situation in the polling center. Leaving home for the polling center, she had some hidden fears that the Taliban militants might attack, but here she was in a completely different situation: cameras flushed at her, reporters asked questions about the election, Afghanistan’s future and about the importance of women’s role. ‘Where do you think the country is heading?’ a reporter asked in Dari. She answered in a tired and uncaring voice that she was heading to cast her vote and then wanted to go to her home.

Inside the compound of the school, where the number of female voters seemed equal to the male voters, correspondents of the local and international media waited for voters to interview but the turnout was lower than they expected, so they had to wait for half of the whole day to get enough information to dispatch to their organizations.

My first visit was to the Habibia High School at Karta-e-3. The time was exactly 08:13 AM. The polling had been started about one hour earlier amid tight security. Empty roads and closed markets was a clear sign that the turnout will be low. At Habibia, this was the real case. Reporters and cameramen followed every voter to have an interview with or get some information from. Some people were willing to show their faces, others quietly left the schools leaving cameramen and reporters behind. The outspoken presidential candidate, Ramazan Bashardost cast his vote at this polling center and then started giving statements and interviews to the media. I saw no female voter entering this polling center.

Later, Dr. Ashraf Ghani also arrived at this polling center and cast his vote here. He was surrounded by a large number of campaigners who were highly optimistic about his victory despite the low turnout they could see. He also gave many statements and interviews to the media and met lot of people at the center. To my surprise, an old Kuchi man, whom I had interviewed few minutes ago and who proudly told me that he had cast his vote for Hamid Karzai, hugged him and told him that he liked him very much. After Mr. Ghani left, I asked the man if he was so fond of him and liked him so much why he voted for Karzai. He simply replied, ‘I like Ghani, he is a good man, but I voted for Karzai because I know he can lead this country better than anyone else.’

I interviewed few more people and went to another polling center: a high school at Chehal Satoon (district 7). And then to five more polling centers, including Zarghoona High School at Shahr-e-Naw. The voters were excited everywhere, but rush was nowhere. At a high school at Karta-e-9, there was a firing from somewhere close to the area, but there was no panic and the voters continued to vote. At Ghulam Haider Khan High School at Khairkhana, someone spread news that there was a blast at a polling center somewhere at the city. Yet no one left their place or looked worried. They just continued to vote and made exaggerating claims about the victory of their candidates.

At the polling centers, I interviewed 66 people and asked them whom they had voted for in order to have an idea about the popularity of the candidates. The result was that the majority of the people said they had voted for President Karzai. Following are the details of the respondents’ answers:

Habibia High School

President Hamid Karzai            9

Dr. Ashraf Ghani                         1

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah            1

Chehal Satoon

President Hamid Karzai            1

Dr. Ashraf Ghani                      1

Karta-e-9

President Hamid Karzai            2

Isteqlal High School, Park Zarnigar

President Hamid Karzai            2

Dr. Ashraf Ghani                      2

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah        1

Zarghoona High School, Shahr-e-Naw

President Hamid Karzai            7

Dr. Ashraf Ghani                      1

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah         2

Ghulam Haider Khan High School, Khairkhana

President Hamid Karzai            17

Dr. Ashraf Ghani                      3

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah         7

Ramazan Bashardost                1

Nadria High School, Karta-e-Parwan

President Hamid Karzai            4

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah             4

Total

President Hamid Karzai            42

Dr. Ashraf Ghani                          8

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah            15

Ramazan Bashardost                1

Among the people I interviewed 5 were women and the rest men. Among the men were Pashtoons, Tajik, and others. One said he was a traffic police officer. Majority of those who had voted for Karzai said they were happy with his leadership because their life conditions were improved during his presidency. A shopkeeper said he voted for Karzai because he had united the Afghans and provided better opportunities for them. He said he liked Karzai because he did not like wars and always acted wisely.

I also interviewed 10 people who were not registered voters. I asked why. 6 of them said they simply did not spare time to go to a voter registration center and register their names. 1 said they were not interested in the elections and did not care where the country was going. 1 said he was not sure whom to vote for, hence he did not try to get a voter card. 1 said he believed that democracy was against Islam.

Among the six who did not spare time for registering their names, 3 said they would have liked to vote for Karzai; one said for Dr. Ashraf Ghani; one said for Dr. Abdullah; and one said for Mirwais Yasini.

The voting is still underway and will continue until late. There is a strong possibility that a runoff will be needed.

 It was Afghanistan’s 90^th Independence Day today, the first that no one celebrated due to the complicated nature of the country’s second-ever landmark election, just hours away now. The Taliban-launched terror campaign forced the people to stay at homes and the security forces to take stricter measures for protection and safety. Even the Nato-led international peacekeeping force halted its offensive operations to protect voters around polling centers.

 Reports from different parts of the country say the election process is under attack everywhere in many shapes: attacks on polling centers, attacks on candidates, and threats to the voters. As a last attempt to change the situation in their favor, the Taliban claimed to have sent 20 suicide bombers and attackers to Kabul while the government asked media organizations to limit their reporting of violent acts of terror. It is true that the media coverage of terror acts encourages the perpetrators of violence and promotes their ambitions.

Finally, the election day arrived but amid two kinds of fear for the voters: there are voters who will be forced away from polling by the Taliban and their allies (bad fear), yet the voters who will manage to poll will still have fears about the fairness and transparency of the process (good fear). The former is related to the Afghan situation (and was experienced during Pakistan’s last election) while the latter is customary in the regional brand democracies, often based and practiced on dictatorial tendencies, conspiracy and rigging as well as different sorts of lies falsely justified by religious and political pretexts.

 Though this is the second presidential election in the country’s short democratic history, it is a real test for all the parties involved in the situation: the international community; the Afghan government; the Afghan people; and the insurgents.

 For the international community and the United States President Barack Obama, the success, or failure, of a new important strategy for the region depends on the capabilities of a new elected administration in Afghanistan.

 For the Afghan government, the test is important in many aspects: For example, how it maintains the election process, how it reacts to the people’s decision, and how it copes with or manages the situation after the polling is done and the result is out.

 For the Afghan people, it is really an experiment and a historic experience. It is they who will decide and choose the new leader, and the world is impatient to see how they will bear it if the result was not what they have been expecting (many fear for an Iran-like situation).

 And for the insurgents, this is the opportunity to show how much their strength and presence can affect or change the situation. In their case, it will shape the approach about them after the election in terms of negotiations with them or operations against them. In this context, we can say that this election is not just an event, but a series of important events full of suspense.

 Tomorrow I will visit many polling centers and will what I saw will be posted here along with photos.

For the people of this war-ravaged country the coming election on August 20 2009 is viewed with hope as well as apprehension. There are a total of 41 candidates registered with the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan among whom only three have enough support to be considered serious contenders. They are the incumbent Hamid Karzai, Dr. Ashraf Ghani, and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. Three lesser-known candidates have already withdrawn from the race in favour of Karzai and Abdullah.

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By Abdulhadi Hairan

As Pashtuns form majority of the Afghans, candidates in the upcoming presidential election have been trying to attract as much Pashtun votes as possible because only these votes can help them to ascend the throne of Kabul as did Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun from Kandahar, in 2004.

 Tribal and ethnic relationships have always played a vital role in Afghan politics. A joke circulated here when Barack Obama visited Afghanistan during his election campaign that Gul Agha Sherzai, the governor of eastern Nangrahar province, told people that he (Barack Obama) was a Barakzai (member of the Barakzai Pashtun tribe). This was apparently an attempt to establish some relationship between the Pashtuns and the would-be American president to lessen the tension some people felt during his visit.

 Establishing ethnic and religious relationships of this kind sometimes really work. An example could be former Pakistani dictator Ziaulhaq who was fond of proving everything he did through verses from the Quran. According to insiders, once when he was going to address his nation on an Independence Day, he asked his mullah to find a verse in the Quran through which he could legitimize his dictatorship in Pakistan. By exploiting religion in this way, he ruled the country for 11 years.

 The Afghan presidential candidates are no exception. President Hamid Karzai has acquired the support of Sebghatullah Mujaddedi, a religious and jihadi leader and influential figure. His statement that God has ordered him to vote for Karzai indicates the same ‘relationship.’ Elsewhere, Dr. Abdullah’s campaigners have been trying to prove that he was born a Pashtun. The same goes with other candidates.

 However, these ‘relationships’ have attracted much criticism from Pashto websites, an independent source that give voice to individuals in a society still ruled by ruthless militants, merciless warlords, arrogant murderers, and shameless abusers of human rights.

 Many of the writers of these websites are anonymous, but they write well and hit the point. One such article on www.taand.com points out that the people who campaign for President Hamid Karzai and Dr. Abdullah in the eastern Nangrahar province are known criminals and people feel being harassed as they roam the streets.

 Another article on www.benawa.com advises President Hamid Karzai to be aware of his sycophant campaigners who are ruining his campaign and defaming his character, yet another article on the same website severely criticizes Dr. Abdullah’s campaigners for their attempts of proving him a Pashtun in bid to gain Pashtun votes.

 At the same time, www.tolafghan.com, a well-read Pashto website, has posted a news item saying that, for the first time in Afghan politics, the three hopeful candidates President Hamid Karzai, Dr. Ashraf Ghani, and Dr. Abdullah will have a debate on Thursday which will be aired live on TV and radio channels of the country. The website has invited its readers to watch the ‘interesting debate.’ People are waiting impatiently to watch the three ‘fighting.’

By Abdulhadi Hairan

 The race for the second-ever presidential election in Afghanistan has reached the highest point as the Election Day, August 20 (29 Asad 1388), approaches closer, with candidates trying to use every possible means to muster voters to their camps by promising many improvements, including a change in the current policies.

 Having realized the importance of using the internet technology and online resources in the campaign process, and impressed by its considerable effectiveness in the last American election, leading Afghan candidates, such as Dr. Abdullah, Dr. Ashraf Ghani, and Mirwais Yasini have, for the first time, launched websites for their election campaigns and their campaigners have been using social networks, such as facebook, youtube, twitter, and different blogs providing services, to regularly provide updated information and stay connected with the voters in and out of the country. These online resources have proved to be helpful to raise donations too. According to a post on techpresident.com,

 So [Ashraf] Ghani has spotted an opportunity to use the web in two ways: utilize word-of-mouth and encourage local influencers to spread the word in their communities; and to target the large Afghan ex-pat population in the West for political donations and to amplify their views back into their homeland.

 A total of 41 candidates, among whom two are female, are in the field for the race while more than 15 million voters have been registered in all 34 provinces to choose a new leader for the country which is facing an appallingly growing insurgency, the big obstacle in the successful election process as well as the country’s development and reconstruction efforts.

 Hopefully, despite the deteriorating security situation in southern and southeastern provinces and recent attacks on election campaigners (On July 15, unknown gunmen killed Haji Abdul Sattar, the campaigner for Dr. Abdullah, in Kapisa’s Nijrab district and a grenade attack took place on Hamid Karzai’s election campaign center for women in the southern Zabul province), rallies and gatherings are being held in provinces in which large numbers of supporters voice support for the contenders of their choice and convey to their countrymen a message of their concern for their country’s future.

 Unlike the 2004 presidential campaign, in which President Hamid Karzai was much ahead from his rivals (he won with over 55 percent votes, three times more than any other candidate), this election seems to be a tough and tense competition because none of the candidates is so far able to show too much support from people to help him\her to be perceived as a clear winner. In addition, by announcing a joint strategy, opponents of President Hamid Karzai have vowed that they will not let him to win easily.

 “We have one competitor, and we are focused on the one competitor,’ Ashraf Ghani, the hopeful candidate and former finance minister, told Nancy A. Youssef of mcclatchydc.com on July 14, 2009.

 Similar views were expressed by some other candidates rival to President Karzai, and though he may have reserved a good amount of electoral votes by mustering support of a few powerful and influential commanders and tribal leaders, it is sure that he faces a hard battle for winning.

 On the other end, for security purposes on the poll day, additional foreign troops may be deployed to alleviate voters’ fear about going to polling stations and protect and enable foreign observers and media correspondents to oversee the process.

 As election is the most important event and basic requirement for a democratic system and vital for improvements in people’s lives, the active participation of Afghan youth groups, media organizations, tribal elders, students and common people is a good omen for the building up of democracy and democratic values in Afghanistan.

 No doubt that the country’s worsening security situation does not allow candidates, their supporters and common voters to get together, and visit and listen to each other freely, but the local TV channels, FM radios, Pashto and Dari websites and social networks, and mobile messaging services provide them this opportunity through live debates, political discussions, news updates, opinion pieces, campaign announcements, and sending short messages on mobile phones.

 Keeping all these paradox factors in mind, one cannot predict exactly which path the situation will go in near future, yet one can hope that if there are no major flaws and unexpected delays in the process, the interest of voters will increase and the polling will be completed successfully.