Afghan Election's Fairness Questioned

In what may turn out to be a hollow exercise, Afghans went to the polls yesterday to choose a new parliament. However, this appears to be a case of "it's not if you vote that counts, but how you count the votes." The Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan says it "serious concerns about the quality" of the elections; the Foundation cites the insecurity and numerous complaints of fraud. Since results will not be known until sometime in October, it is fair to expect further manipulation of a tainted vote.

Holding an election in the middle of a war is a challenge even in a society where democratic institutions have deep roots. In Afghanistan, challenge is an understatement. The Voice of America reported, "The interior minister reports at least 11 civilians and three police officers were killed in election-related violence across the country.  And the head of the country's election commission said Sunday the bodies of three elections workers kidnapped in northern Afghanistan Saturday have been found."

On top of that kind of violence and intimidation, Al Jazeera's James Bay has stated, "We've people who have been able to wash the 'indelible' ink off their fingers; we have voter registration cards - fake ones - which were definitely used, we are told, in some areas and we have been told of some polling stations where one candidate allowed only his supporters to go inside." Even if this is entirely untrue, mere propaganda, such rumors will take hold, and the result will be tainted.

The Afghan people were to choose from 2,500 candidates to fill 249 seats in the lower house of parliament, the wolesi jirga. It is now quite clear that their voices will go unheard as political insiders divide up the seats. Peter Galbraith said the elections were "significantly fraudulent. This is hardly the voice of the Afghan people. Very few Afghans voted. The estimates are in the range of three million. A year ago, there were six million votes even removing the one and a half million that were fake Karzai votes." Mr. Karzai was re-elected president anyway. Mr. Galbraith was the former UN deputy special representative for Afghanistan. He was fired after complaining about fraud in last year's presidential balloting

And this is the government the US and its allies are supposed to be fighting to protect. The theft of this election calls into question the overall wisdom of the Pentagon's military strategy. Surge as many troops as America can, but it will make no long term difference if Afghans do not support the government. A government elected fraudulently only has the support of those on whose behalf the theft took place.

The time for a reassessment of overall strategy in Afghanistan is long overdue. As this journal has said before, counter-terrorism can work. Counter-insurgency and nation building most likely cannot. The war can still end in victory for the US and its allies. All that needs to happen is to redefine the mission and fight the war accordingly.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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