Word: talibanize
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...polling station, Faiz Muhammad, 44, said he had nothing to lose. Since a landmine destroyed his left leg during the jihad against the Soviets, he has worked odd-jobs, most recently as a watch repairman in Arghandab, a volatile district north of the city. But the Taliban has suffocated life there, he says, with no respect for his past sacrifice. "We fought to live in peace, and now they are making things impossible, fighting the police. Damn them." (Read about the Taliban threat to disrupt the election...
...There were some bright spots. Turnout in the northern provinces was extremely high - some districts were reporting 100% turnout by mid-afternoon. Residents of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, which is at the center of the Taliban insurgency, defied a Taliban directive not to vote and turned out by the hundreds, according to a voter reached by phone. "Yes, the Taliban has told us that if we vote, they will cut off our fingers, but I don't care," says Assadullah, 24. Fellow voter Golalai Khan, 29, agrees, saying, "We need to vote, as it says...
...Outside of Kabul, the situation was indeed worse, with rocket attacks throughout the country scaring voters away from the polls. In Wardak province, next to Kabul, Taliban intimidation on the roads forced the provincial government to close all polling stations. As a last resort, soldiers from the Afghan army started going door to door with ballots, a practice that could easily be mistaken as a coercive tactic in favor of the current government. International and independent Afghanistan observers worry that the lack of voters could open the way to fraud: corrupt officials might use the names and registration numbers...
...that are not from the people." When asked why he was even bothering to vote, Zahir shrugs, saying, "As an Afghan, it is my responsibility to help choose our future. But many of my friends have already given up. They didn't even come out today." (Read about the Taliban threat to disrupt the Afghan election...
...turnout will do "little to enhance the sense that all Afghans are included in the democratic process," Rondeaux says. "It also raises the possible threat that the incumbent's main rivals will question the results and perhaps encourage a violent response, leaving open a window for the Taliban to fully disrupt Afghanistan's progress." (Watch a video on the Afghanistan election...