Polls: Get, set, go

Twenty seven candidates have filed nominations for next year’s presidential polls. The field is crowded.
Media at the office of the Election Commission were astonished by the rush of last minute registrations before nominations

Twenty seven candidates have filed nominations for next year’s presidential polls. The field is crowded.
Media at the office of the Election Commission were astonished by the rush of last minute registrations before nominations closed for the polls in 2014. “There were crowds around candidates who came in top model cars,” says journalist Mohammad Hussain Mehrjo.
For days after nominations opened on Sept 16 only one candidate had filed his papers. It was the proverbial lull before the storm. Candidates were pouring in even at night ahead of the midnight deadline for the end of registration on Oct 7.
Political analyst Rahmatullah Bezhan thinks candidates took time to reveal their cards because political parties and alliance partners were in lengthy and secretive political consultations. The last minute flood of candidates suggests even coalitions failed to arrive at a consensus on a presidential candidate or running mate.
It is still early days, and candidates could still step aside for others in the fray. According to Hamid Saei, a journalist and political analyst, most of those who have signed up have not really “studied the suitability of their candidature. Political deal-making has made them blind and deaf”.
Meanwhile, the electorate is confused by the number of candidates. Maryam Abedi, a student in a private university in Kabul, says the promises made by candidates were all so similar that “I do not have an understanding of their individual potential.”
Asked by our reporter if she has decided on who she will vote for, the young woman is frank. “I can’t see any goodness (in candidates). I cannot say who I will give my vote to.”
Voters want to see a transparent and fair election to vote a successor for President Hamid Karzai who cannot run for a third term under the Afghan Constitution.
There are at least eight candidates, apart from General Rashid Dostum who has filed nominations as the running mate for the former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani, who have allegations of war crimes to answer for.
M. Isa Ishaqzai, head of the Afghanistan National Congress, told a press conference in Kabul that the forthcoming election would be democratic and free of fear for voters.