Afghan Elections and Beyond
Dr. G. Rauf Roashan
Afghanistan has staged a unique national effort to elect a legislature on September 18, 2005. Although this is not the first time the Afghans elect a legislature, yet the current event would be the first attempt under the new democratization program envisaged for Afghanistan at the Bonn Meeting under the auspices of the United Nations and support of the United State. These elections are being held under close observation of Afghanistan’s friends and foes. The elections will be watched carefully inside and outside the country. Both national and international circles and powers have a variety of interests in Afghan elections.
Huge preparations have been taken to ensure a safe environment for the elections and millions of dollars have been spent to buy that assurance. But elections anywhere are a matter of maturity of the nation where they take place and the prudence of its political leaders that run for office. And when parties get involved they prepare, besides their speeches of victory, proclamations and declarations of accusations in case they lose. Some politicians launch statements to the effect that elections will be rigged in one way or another so that if the end result were not to their liking they would remind the nation of their forewarnings.
There are reports already of the government trying to influence the results of these important elections by making it easier for the candidates of its choice to win. Ironically, the head of the Executive Branch does not have a party of his own. On the other hand, pressure by extremist groups and an insurgency that has already embarked on crimes of murder and threats against candidates and targeting men and women candidates and voters, is exerted in real terms. Foreign interference has also been cited. The Joint Election Management Body, responsible for all arrangements regarding elections, has been accused of siding with the government to the degree that some party leaders have called it the “king’s men.” Names of a number of candidates have been eliminated from the race for failing to submit their arms and some have been dropped from the race for being warlords. The Afghan Election Law has allowed, with a great degree of justification, the above. Yet some other candidates have been eliminated without being a warlord or possessing militias or arms. Mohammad Yonus Qanooni leader of a large coalition of parties in the opposition has named one such candidate as Samya Jan, a woman candidate.
It is also a fact that there are all kinds of candidates for both the lower and the higher chambers of the legislature as well as provincial councils. These include the rightist and the leftist elements, those who are in position of power because of the arms they hold and the militias they keep, warlords and men and women with connections. Connection in this context refers to all imaginable sources.
Another issue of contention has been the method that the votes will be counted. JEMB, painstakingly has come up with a process that allows for all ballots to be brought to provincial centers where they will be counted in the presence of representatives of the candidates and other observers. One group, the opposition parties’ coalition, presently headed by Mr. Qanooni, wants the votes to be counted at the polling stations, presently numbering some 6000.
But whatever the differences and pretenses for grievances, Afghanistan supported by its main military benefactor namely the United States, has decided to hold these important elections and to provide the security needed for the process and create the country’s first post-Taleban legislature.
The Afghan new parliament is already the institution in which many patriots have placed their hopes and aspirations for making the government earnestly carry out the process of reconstruction, provide national security, map out a national policy, regulate government activities and provide social services to the nation. As the post-Taleban democratic institution, the parliament must take steps to work together with the executive, on the issues that are clearly national and areas of priority for the nation. It is expected also to oppose those actions and inactions by the executive that would postpone the process of reconstruction, growth of the economy and improvement of the social status of the citizens. The parliament is expected to reverberate in its deliberations and in its law making efforts the hopes and aspirations of a nation that has risen, with a great deal of resiliency, from the ashes of a protracted war. The parliament is expected to realize the slow pace of development in Afghanistan so far and the shortcomings of the executive. It is expected to find out the reasons for these shortcomings and to help overcome them. The parliament is expected to act in unity leaving aside selfish ethnic, geographic and other factional interests. However, it should make sure to provide for true equality for all Afghans irrespective of their gender or ethnic backgrounds and affiliations. It should help the executive by giving it the legal tools to serve the nation. It is legally bound by the provisions of the constitution to provide checking and balancing of the executive’s powers and actions. These powers have so far been concentrated in the person of the president.
In the field, however the provincial councils will be activated with a democratic base. The function of these councils have not been elaborated well, but the mere fact that they will exist as democratically voted institutions in the field, make them important in the overall implementation of democracy in the country. Both the parliament and the executive and especially the person of the president should see to it that this political machinery is build upon a sound basis and provide for its smooth functioning so that the country would derive its mandate mostly from the directives and proposals of these councils which are closer to the people and keener in their observation of what goes on in the country.
So looking ahead and beyond the elections, Afghanistan is awaiting an era when the concept of the western style democracy will be tested in the country and the process would be watched keenly by the world at large. Afghanistan is also looking forward to the implementation of a system of government where people from among the masses would have a say in the working, design and implementation of the programs of government.
The success of the venture would depend upon the quality of the individuals who would be elected to the parliament and provincial and district councils, their knowledge of politics and political process and their devotion to the people and the country. It will also depend on the conduct of the elections in a straightforward, honest and just way, free from any kind of outside influence, threats and intimidations as well as pressure by and from foreign interests, warlords, drug smugglers and extremists. 9/11/05
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