Introduction:
Before the elections, looking to the past experience, manipulation by foreign countries was feared and it was assumed that elections will be broadly marred by fraud and its legitimacy will come under question.
The question is whether April 5 elections were transparent? CSRS Director Dr. Abdul Baqi Amin talks about this issue along with answering some other questions.
Transparency:
Overall we can say that the transparency of these elections might be better than previous ones, which can be due to the intensive presence of local and foreign observers and candidates’ representatives in most of the polling stations, and the new IEC laws and procedures.
However, in some regions IEC staff fraud has been reported which along with a number of other frauds and irregularities affected the transparency. On the other hand security risks had also its role in affecting a high turnout on the polling day.
It is clear that the people in insecure areas did not cast votes in amount that the IEC is claims of; and the media did not concentrate on this issue. Although freedom of media exist in Afghanistan but there is an overall censorship on it to an extent, in these elections media was advised not to reflect negative news and stories about the elections which includes both insecurity and frauds.
Turnout:
Since it’s believed that the turnout was high compared to previous elections, the first question raises that whether the turnout was really high? According to the Interior Ministry 13 provinces were insecure and participation of the people in these provinces was not possible. It is claimed that there were polling stations in most of the insecure provinces while there was no possibility of public participation and the IEC did not named the closed polling stations. Therefore, it’s unclear that in the areas where no participation was possible and polling stations were opened whether ballots box has been filled or not and if there were votes casted in those polling stations, it’s transparency is under question and the votes are invalid. If the IEC’s claim of seven million voters’ participation includes these types of votes as well, then the claim is also false.
In reality the turnout in these elections was high which can have several reasons. First, the transition of authority was imminent so the people showed interest for voting. Secondly, the widespread campaigns of the candidates and their promises to the people for bringing change. Thirdly, Afghanization of the process can also be the reason behind the widespread participation besides it shows that public awareness has been raised and people recognize the importance of their role in electing their future president, which can be a good foundation for peaceful transition of the power.
Run-off:
Due to large number of the candidates and spread of votes among them there is possibility of no one securing a 50 percent plus one vote threshold and a run-off is likely. It’s clear that all the problems that existed in the first round of elections will be repeated again besides government might also have economic problem providing budget for it.
Besides in the run-off concerns over ethnic divisions and social instabilities also rise, because the ethnic and tribal tendencies had its role in the first round of election as well. However, these concerns are not that much serious which should cause social destabilization.
Expectations from the Next Government:
The next Afghan government should end the decade-long war and immediately start negotiations and form a government that can unite the entire nation and bring them around it so that foreign meddling is stopped and the need for presence of foreign troops is eliminated. The second importance is self-sufficient Afghan economy, by developing industrial and agriculture sectors we should have enough income to operate the country; Creating new employment opportunities for educated individuals especially for youth so that the rate of crimes, use of narcotics and other social problems are decreased.
The third problem is that Karzai’s administration could not transparently hire personnel and procure for government agencies in many sectors rather conflict of interest was largely involved, which the next government should take care of and form a government that is based on specialization. Rule of law is also one of the main problems, currently in all of the government agencies laws are not implemented and the corruption is at its extreme, even if someone tries to work transparently it will cost them losing the job.