There are concerns that the presidential elections in 2014 may not be fair with the Independent Election Commission (IEC) deciding to use the old voter registration system and cards.
There are concerns that the presidential elections in 2014 may not be fair with the Independent Election Commission (IEC) deciding to use the old voter registration system and cards.The Commission had been pushing for new tamper-proof biometric registration and cards despite resistance from the government. Killid has learnt the decision to go with the government was taken at a meeting of the IEC secretariat where the head of the Commission, Fazal Ahmad Manawi, was absent.
The government’s opponents are clearly not pleased by the IEC decision. The last presidential election was marred by allegations of fraud and threat of widespread violence that kept many voters at home. The IEC’s buckling in to the government could complicate the situation, say political observers.
Writer and journalist Nawid Elham said, “Though the IEC is responsible for holding the elections, the interference and power of the government is clearly visible (in the poll process). As a result there are concerns that once again the outcome of elections may be tied to powerful interests like the government and international community.”
The fact that the Karzai government was opposed to any move to re-issue voter cards, raises suspicions that the last elections were rigged in the government’s favour and the forthcoming poll may also be “non-transparent and undemocratic”, Elham said.
Ruling out poll fraud
Karzai’s western allies have expressed concern that presidential elections should be free and transparent. Incoming US Secretary of State John Kerry used the nomination hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to warn Afghanistan should hold an “acceptable election” next year or risk losing the support of western governments.
Kerry admitted he had helped win recognition for Karzai’s controversial win in the last presidential ballot. “I went through this personally with President Karzai in the last election where there were serious questions about the propriety of the process and we had to sort of strike a compromise about it,” he said. “I don’t think there will be room for a compromise in the aftermath here.”
The opposition in Kabul has picked up on Kerry’s statements. Fazl Rahman Oria, member of the National Coalition party, said the future US Secretary of State has confirmed Karzai was put back in the chair as president in 2009 after a fraud election.
Contradictory stance
That the president made use of western support flies in the face of his opposition to a new election law pushed by the opposition, which would have mandated two foreigners appointed by the UN to sit on the country’s five-person Electoral Complaints Commission. In early December last year, the Council of Ministers axed the Electoral Complaints Commission, and reassigned its powers to the Supreme Court. “We are able to hold transparent, just and free elections,” the president said regarding his decision.
Meanwhile in Kabul, Nicholas Haysom, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for UNAMA, has also warned a fraudulent poll would jeopardise western backing for the country. “If the coming elections are ambiguous, there is (the) possibility that the expected support of international support for the Afghan government would be effected,” he said.
Waseq Husaini, lecturer at Kabul University, said the West can “take honest steps” to establish the mechanism to prevent vote fraud. “Only their concerns will not help make for transparent elections.”
Amend election law
The Cooperation Council of Political Parties and Coalitions has vociferously rejected the decision to re-use the voter cards in the forthcoming election.
Rajab Ali Danesh, a member of Hizb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami, which is a member of the Cooperation Council, read out from his party’s statement, to say, “the government, instead of supporting parties and civil society institutions for actual independence for the election commission, has changed from hidden and invisible interference to visible and open interference.”
Following a Cooperation Council meeting in Mazar-e-Sharif, coalition partners urged Karzai not to use government machinery to canvas support for a candidate. The president who is barred by the Afghan Constitution for running for a third term may be considering a proxy, the opposition fears.
The Council, which is a broad front of several Afghan opposition parties and civil society groups, has decided that electronic National Identity Cards are the only way to prevent large-scale electoral fraud.
Among the leaders present at the recent meeting in the Balkh capital were Ahmad Zia Massoud of the National Front; General Abdul Rashid Dostum of the National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan; Mohammad Mohaqiq of Hezb-e-Wahdat-e-Islami Mardum-e-Afghanistan; Amrullah Saleh, senior member of National Front and former director of NDS, Balkh Governor and senior member of Jamiat-i-Islami Afghanistan, Atta Mohammad Noor.
“The election law must be amended and the government must promise to hold fair elections,” the leaders said in a statement issued on the occasion. Changes to the election law are coming up for discussion soon in the Afghan parliament.
