Word: voting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Last week, exactly two months after Afghans first went to the polls on Aug. 20, Karzai announced that since no one candidate (out of a field of 41) had received 50% of the vote, the election would go to a second round between the two highest vote earners. An initial tally of the votes put Karzai at 54%, with Abdullah in second place at 28%, but after more than a million votes were thrown out due to irregularities, the results were recalibrated to 49% and 32%, respectively. (See a profile of Abdullah Abdullah...
Election observers have asked for more such stations to be closed, citing fears of continued abuses, but they also recognize the need to balance rural areas' right to vote with the risk of fraud. Haroun Mir, director of Afghanistan's Center for Research and Policy Studies, says such an approach risks alienating the very people whom a new President needs most to ensure his legitimacy. "If the Independent Election Commission doesn't open sites where the Taliban is strong, they are telling the Pashtuns in the south that your vote doesn't count," he says...
Most Afghans, however, say the efforts at fraud prevention will be worthless if people don't turn out to vote. Safora el-Khani, a Member of Parliament from Bamiyan, the mountainous center of Afghanistan, points out that for many parts of her district, which is largely inhabited by a minority ethnic group, it is already too late. Winter arrives early in the mountains of Afghanistan, and heavy snowfall will make it impossible for voters to get to the polls or for ballots to make it back to Kabul for tabulation. "We will not have access to some polling stations...
...Kabul University, where election excitement ran high before the Aug. 20 vote, students shrugged off the next round, citing a lack of faith in the process. "We have a problem with these politicians," says Abdul Jabar, 23, a student of Dari literature. "There will be very low turnout because the people have no trust." Ali Farhan, 25, a law student, agrees, saying he won't vote. And Darab Raofi, 20, in the social sciences school, says the whole issue has become boring. "We are talking about the same thing happening again and again. I voted the last time...
...conducted over the summer, it is most likely that Karzai will win this round, even if turnout is low. That is what worries parliamentarian Daoud Sultanzoy. "The runoff will make the government less legitimate," he reasons. Even if Karzai wins, it doesn't mean that most of the population voted for him, he says. "The best scenario is that the people of this country have confidence and vote in a free and fair election. The worst case is that Pashtun areas will not participate in large numbers, and this will provoke ethnic strife." With their most recent announcement, it seems...