The Command Post - Global Recon - Election Day in Afghanistan

October 09, 2004

Election Day in Afghanistan

Afghanistan`s first direct presidential election began at 7 a.M. (local time) Saturday amid tight security.
More than 10.5 million Afghans including over 4 million women are going to some 22,000 polling stations across the country to cast ballots to choose their president.

A 19-year-old Afghan refugee in Pakistan became the election`s first voter early Saturday, casting a ballot in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan.
Around 3 million Afghans are still living as refugees in Pakistan and Iran. To ensure the smooth going of the voting, over 21 million ballot papers have been printed for Afghans both at home and abroad to be used in the presidential elections.

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After 25 years of near-constant war, voters descended on bombed-out schools, blue-domed mosques and bullet-pocked hospitals to choose their leader for the first time as more than 100,000 soldiers, police, U.S. troops and other security forces were deployed to thwart attacks. Interim leader Hamid Karzai is widely expected to win against 15 rivals, among them warlords, royalists and an Islamic poet. But the size of the field could deny Karzai the outright majority needed to avert a runoff.

While this is a great day for Afghanistan and democracy, there's still trouble surrounding the election, gunmen attacked and wounded a policie officer at a polling site.

And it is now being reported that 14 of the 18 candidates want the voting stopped.

Afghanistan's historic election was plunged into crisis on Saturday after 14 of the 18 candidates demanded voting be stopped because of irregularities, casting a pall over the enthusiasm of voters who turned out in force across the troubled country.
An aide to Yunus Qanooni, the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai, said the opposition candidate was demanding a suspension of the first Afghan exercise in democracy for decades to prevent further fraud.

Another challenger, Abdul Satar Sirat, said 14 candidates called for a halt following an early morning hitch when it appeared the ink meant to prevent multiple voting could be rubbed out.
But the election commission said the glitch was a case of inexperienced electoral workers in Kabul polling stations using the wrong ink and had quickly been rectified.

Posted by Michele at October 9, 2004 07:10 AM | TrackBack

Comments

This is a historic occasion. Successful elections in Afghanistan and Iraq will be almost miraculous, considering where both countries were four years ago.

Posted by: legion at October 9, 2004 10:02 AM

Afghan women voting is an event the US media should be covering with stories on the ground at various polling places. Instead, it gets sound bite coverage except on the blogs. Never mind, MSM, it's happening whether you cover it or not. What a proud day for the Afghans.

Posted by: Retread at October 9, 2004 07:14 PM

The American media seems to be playing up the protest of the 14 opposition candidates more than the amazing story of the election itself.

If I understand the mindset of folks in that region, I would think that saving face is far more important than winning or losing. The 14, when they saw defeat at hand, had to raise some excuse for withdrawing rather than simply admitting defeat as a westerner would. That way they do not lose the respect of their followers who can continue to gripe about the unfair way Karzai stole the election.

Simply admitting defeat would be political death for them. In other words I think this is merely S.O.P. in that part of the world.

Posted by: old_timer at October 10, 2004 06:10 AM

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