Afghan vote raises questions of legitimacy

AFGHANISTAN: As the results in Afghanistan’s bitterly contested election trickle out, Afghans are caught in a complex guessing game about who will be their next president and how solid his mandate will be.

The gap between the main rivals in the race for the top job President Hamid Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah appears to be widening in the incumbent’s favour, though observers insist it is still too close to call.

The figures appear to suggest however that turnout was low around 30-35 percent raising questions about the legitimacy of the man who is declared president when final results are known in mid-September.

Afghanistan’s second presidential election and a parallel vote for provincial councillors were held on August 20 under the shadow of scores of Taliban attacks, suicide bombings and, later, amputation of some voters’ inked fingers.

Just two hours after the first results were released in Kabul on Tuesday, the southern city of Kandahar was rocked by a horrific suicide car bomb that killed more than 40 people and bore all the hallmarks of a Taliban attack.

Views on the legitimacy of the vote are mixed, with some commentators insisting such low turnout raises serious questions about what mandate a president with 50 percent of around five million votes can claim.

Others are as adamant that turnout of around five million of 17 million registered is proof Afghans are engaged in the democratic process and sent a clear message to the Taliban that their intimidation tactics were futile.

“I think Afghans have shown very clearly to the Taliban that despite the fear that was created before the election which was massive, with night letters, threats, attacks despite all of that they wanted to vote,” said Nader Nadery, of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan.

“Even in very volatile environments, where there was fighting — Baghlan, Logar, Paktia, Zabul, Helmand when the fighting stopped people went to polling stations and asked to be able to vote.

“Compare that response proportionately to the level of threat and fear from the Taliban, and the message to the Taliban is that your tactics haven’t worked,” he said.

In some areas of the country, however, the campaign of intimidation worked well enough to keep voters away almost entirely. In some militant strongholds, including Logar province south of Kabul, residents said turnout was negligible. Kabul, Thursday, AFP