Word: votes
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Creating security conditions to enable more Afghans to vote has been the tactical priority of U.S. efforts for much of this year, deflecting from undertaking the development and reconstruction work deemed critical to the success of the counterinsurgency campaign. And even then, with the Taliban posing an active threat to polling in almost half of the country, there's a real danger of a turnout too low to legitimize the election. "If it's under 30%, there will be appeals by almost everyone to say that this is not a legitimate election, and that we'll need another election," Pakistani...
Cordesman warns that those looking to cry foul already have plenty of material to work with. "Karzai has spent months trying to exploit traditional ties and allegiances by buying bloc votes from ex-warlords, local leaders, and power brokers," Cordesman noted in emailed comments. "The joke is that he has promised governorships to three times more such leaders than there are provinces. The reality is that Karzai's top running mates are the equivalent of warlords, and he [has] done everything possible to buy the election long before the vote will actually occur. As a result, the real question...
...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...
...station in central Kabul, was receiving regular updates via mobile phone from his brother, who was in turn hearing about violence from his network of friends throughout the city. "No one knows where the attacks are happening, so no one knows where it is safe to go vote," he says, gesturing at his empty polling station. Observers and volunteers outnumbered voters 20 to 1. Early in the day, nearly 100 men and half as many women had voted, he says, but since the news of the first bombing, the number of voters had slowed to a trickle, even though...
...universal theme was the low turnout by women. At one station in Kabul, no women had voted, and at another, just dozens turned up, compared with hundreds of men. This raises alarm bells. Women registered to vote in higher numbers than men this year, which many observers had found hard to believe in a traditional society like Afghanistan. Many suspect that men falsely registered fictitious wives and daughters in order to collect extra voting cards that could in turn be used to stuff ballot boxes. Few of the women's stations were monitored, which raises further questions. "I think people...