Voting Cards Exceed Voters

The Central Statistics Organisation of Afghanistan announced on July 4 that the total population of Afghanistan is 26 million. The chief of the General Statistics Department  said that based

The Central Statistics Organisation of Afghanistan announced on July 4 that the total population of Afghanistan is 26 million. The chief of the General Statistics Department  said that based on the estimates in 2008, out of 26 million, 49 percent of  people are below the age of 18 years.  Since one has to be atleast 18 years old to vote, the recent CSO statistics suggests that nearly half of the Afghan population – 13 million people, are not qualified to vote, leaving the voting population at 13 million or a little above that.

However the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has announced that 17 million voter cards have been distributed so far since 2003 and another 600,000 to 700,000 cards are expected to be distributed this year. This raises the crucial question of why there are an extra 4 million voter cards in circulation.

The IEC, which is responsible for making sure the elections are free, fair and transparent and ensuring accuracy, needs to explain the discrepancy between the two differing statistics – of eligible voters and the voter cards issued.

One major hindrance to this task is the fact that there has been no nation-wide census and no voter rolls have been established. This means that voter cards that are issued cannot be checked against existing voter rolls to ensure their accuracy and prevent duplication. It also means that voters are not registered to a particular polling booth. Voter cards are currently registered and distributed on a provincial basis. This means that any voter within any province may go and cast his or her vote in any polling booth within the province, another fact that makes it difficult for electoral officials to check whether the voter is actually a real voter from the area. Voters are also not required to produce any identifying documents except the voter card during voting, making it difficult to weed out illegitimate voters.

It is important for the IEC to pay attention to the discrepancies in these numbers especially in view of the fact that the Presidential elections of 2009 were marred by widespread fraud. Insecurity in many provinces was one of the reasons that enabled fraud since there was no oversight and it was not possible for election monitors to check the measures being taken at polling stations. News of the existence of 4 million excessive voter cards will also lead to a widespread perception of fraud and encourage those miscreants who would like to commit fraud during the elections. It would also lead to the perception of fraudulent elections leading to a loss of faith in the outcome of the electoral process. In the short term this may encourage people, who would otherwise participate in a legal manner, to adopt fraudulent measures, believing that their candidate could not win in an unfair fight. In the long run, such a perception would result in a loss of faith in the entire process of electoral democracy.