by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Election day 2010 in Afghanistan was dominated by spotty turnout, fake voter cards, and some feisty voters.
Afghanistan's election 2010 yielded reports of intimidation in unstable regions. In Kabul, some voters aimed to oust incumbents, while others appeared to want to cast ballots more than once.
Already in the first hour of voting the observers from the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan reported 224 "serious acts of intimidation" and this continued throughout the day.
The spotty turnout, especially in the rural districts, is due to the Taliban threatening those that vote – and the indelible ink on their fingers marks them out – with having their fingers hands cut off, and even with death.
So, what has the NATO presence if Afghanistan archived? Precious little. Western-style democrazy – oops, sorry, erm, democracy – will never ever work in the likes of Afghanistan and similar places.
Why not? Because the structures there are so very different to other countries and we cannot, nor should we, try to impose our ways upon them. It will not work and brings nothing but hostility against us.
The extent of actual voting will not be fully understood until ballots boxes are inspected and tallies are analyzed for patterns of fraud, a process that could take weeks, maybe even months. The verdict on how fair the election will hinge on how diligently dirty votes are tossed out in the days ahead. But the question of how free the election was may remain.
In the safer cities of Afghanistan, voters turned out to cast ballots for Parliament, while spot reports from unstable regions suggest intimidation and disillusionment kept many Afghans at home.
In Kandahar city, the center of the Pashtun heartland, few people turned out to vote following notices from the Taliban threatening to kill those who voted. Adding to the unease, three explosions rocked the city in the morning of the election day, including one that unsuccessfully targeted the governor of the province, ensuring that people were too frightened to go out and vote. In the rural districts, as said, things were even worse.
In some rural districts there were almost no voters and in one polling center, local militia arrested poll workers who were busy stuffing ballot boxes after locking out the lone observer. At least they were arrested. How many other ballot boxes will have been stuffed with no one having taken note?
The only answer to the West's involvement in Afghanistan is to get out and to get out now. Afghanistan cannot be tamed nor can it be held. The British Army had its butt kicked several times in the past in that country, as did the Russians and later the USSR. Does anyone think the situation is any different now? It is not and especially not as they majority of the people, in the same way as in Iraq, see the US and allied forces as what they really are, namely an occupying army.
Time we pulled out. It would also save us tons of money.
© 2010
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