Thoughts on elections - Voices from our Afghan colleagues

With only few days before the presidential elections in Afghanistan on the 20th of August, we asked our Afghan colleagues for an appraisal of the situation in the country - regarding their hopes, their expectations and their fears. Some of our colleagues have already answered, we expect further replies and evaluations in the coming days to follow.

 

Z., Legal Aid Fund

An election is a process of choosing some one among a group of people. We people of Afghanistan should elect the best candidate among the forty-one candidates who are running for president. We should elect the one candidate who can best serve our country. We want a president who is honest and who can help Afghanistan stand on its own feet. We should not base our choice on religion or political parties or discrimination.

I wish for a peaceful Afghanistan where women are free of violence and all forms of discrimination, and where women have equal access to economic and social justice, political decision-making, health services, and education. I have all these things in mind when I try to evaluate the presidential candidates and choose the best one.

R., Psycho-Social and Health Programm

We Afghan people are so glad that since the end of the Taliban regime it is now the second time that a presidential election is going to happen. We Afghans have passed thirty years of war in our country, and now the only thing we want is PEACE.

But regarding the election, which is going to be held in twenty-one days, I am a bit confused. It is good to see and practice the new system and try to judge which candidate is an honest person and the best in the country to take on the role of president. But as a young Afghan woman, I am very concerned about which one of the candidates will be the future president of Afghanistan, because (to speak personally) I myself can not see an honest, hardworking, trustworthy person among them.

We can see that in developed countries, the number of candidates becomes less as the election draws near. Only a few candidates remain to choose from, and they have been selected because of the good qualifications they have. But in our country whoever has money can submit an application to be a president.

Right now there are forty candidates. Most of them are people who spent half of their life abroad, have no experience of working in government, have no higher education, and have no knowledge of a democratic system of leadership. That is why I - and other voters - do not know how they would be in office.

As a responsible individual, I honestly have to say that I cannot vote for any of the candidates because it is hard to believe them. As we approach the election, this situation is not good. The Afghan people are afraid of anarchy, and yet we are very confused about whom we should vote for.

L., Psycho-Social and Health Programm

Afghans are going towards the second presidential election; and there is a large number of candidates. When you look into the list of candidates, at first glance you can see lots of candidates that have been black listed as war criminals and war mongers by international human rights organizations. Some of the candidates are totally new faces.

From my point of view, some of the candidates and their assistants are people who have committed war crimes in the last three decades of war in Afghanistan. They are accused of killings and massacres, imprisonment and torture of civilians, murder of intellectuals and democratic minded people, gang rape of women and children, looting and embezzlement of national and civilians’ assets, and betrayal of our national culture and identity. They are extremely misogynist and opposed to all modern ideas and teachings.

Most of the Afghan people will not go to the polls to vote. Those who will go to vote belong to these criminals’ parties. They have been bought by money or force, or they have been scammed. But the vote of the people is not important in Afghanistan.  It is the government of the United States that takes all the decisions and can install any president who can better serve U.S. interests in Afghanistan.

This election is not going to be transparent; and it will not guarantee the exclusion, much less the prosecution, of war criminals and fundamentalists who are the most misogynist creatures on earth.

H., Legal Aid Fund

When I think about the elections coming up this month, I feel some concern about the influence of different religious political parties and ethnic groups in our country.

There are many religious political parties, and one of the aims of every party is to support a presidential candidate.  During the last twenty-five years of internal warfare here in Afghanistan, the existing religious political parties have tried to persuade different groups of people to join them.  Some of these religious parties are still governing over the people, and they have a direct effect on the ideas of the people.

Afghanistan has always been a country of multiple ethnic groups.  I’m afraid there still might be some ethnic discrimination among the different ethnic groups living in the country.  Such discrimination also might have an effect on the ideas of ordinary people. 

Because the literacy rate is very low in Afghanistan, many people may have a problem getting information about the different candidates and deciding which ones to vote for. In such cases, these two factors -- the influence of religious political parties and ethnic groups -- might have such an impact on some uninformed voters that they won’t be able to vote according to their individual choice.  Instead they may simply accept what will be an order from the chief of a religious political party or an ethnic group.

D., Psycho-Social and Health Program

In my work as a psychosocial counselor for medica mondiale, I talk with women in the women’s garden, the district counseling centers, the hospitals, and the prison.  In some of my sessions recently, when it seemed appropriate, I asked my clients, “What do you think about the presidential election? Who do you think is a good person to vote for?”  I received some interesting answers.

Most prisoners in the jail said that they had received voter registration cards and would vote for President Karzai because he is the most experienced candidate.  They said that he would know better than the others how to deal with problems in the future.

After some campaigners representing Dr. Abdullah visited the prison, however, many women said they would vote for him. 

Other clients said that while Karzai has been president, changes have taken place in the economy, politics, and social life that are favorable to women. For example, women can vote, hold jobs, earn money, participate in social matters, and stand up for their rights.  Many clients give Karzai the credit for these things.

Widow women said that at the time Karzai was first selected as president, all the humanitarian organizations started supporting  widows.  They give Karzai credit for that too.

Some women who went to Pakistan during the conflict said that when they came back President Karzai distributed land to them so they could build a house.

It seems that when you are already the president, you get credit for every good thing that happens.

But many women who believe that Karzai will be chosen again want him to do more to bring more changes in the life of women.  They point out that governments all over the world are focusing more and more on women, and they ask, “Why isn’t Afghanistan doing that?”

I., Psycho-Social and Health Program

Millions of people live in this land and most of them have experienced very terrible war. They are waiting and looking forward to living at least one day in peace. Every time there is an election, people become hopeful and look optimistically to the future, hoping for peace and safety, reconstruction, education, and improvement in all aspects of women’s life.
 
But my personal observation of the security situation is that day by day it is getting worse, especially in the provinces.  We hear from the press and TV every day that there is a serious accident, a suicide attack, or an explosion. Every morning when I bring my children to daycare, I see the buildings surrounded by lots of military; but instead of feeling secure, I feel the situation is on the level of high alert. There is lots of noise around the city at this time, due to the election campaigns for the different candidates, and that also causes all of us to think more seriously about security.

A few months ago I went to get an election card. On the way I asked myself many questions: Why am I going to take this card?  For whom should I vote, and why?  What do I know about this candidate and what can he/she do for our people?  Is he/she  honest?  Is he/she able to keep promises made to the people?

That day, as I was getting my card, I noticed a big change. There were a number of women who came together to get election cards, and I found that there were more women than men.  To me it meant that this time women have become more interested in the election, and that we have a chance to vote for whom we want.

Here I can share my personal feelings. On one hand, I feel honored to vote freely for whom I want. And on the other hand, I fear that I might make a mistake and vote for some person who was a warlord.  If that happened, I would feel guilty.  I am stuck between these opposing feelings, and I have heard the same thing from many other people.  They too are unable to make a decision.

This is such a very hard time that we are experiencing. Let’s pray for all of us to be safe and secure.

W., Psycho-Social and Health Program

The national election is very important for the country; therefore, every person should participate actively to select an honest person for the country. 

The election should have transparency, and there should not be any cheating.  The vote is for the good of our country, so we have a responsibility to be honest, but we have seen that a lot of people are being misused by others.

We hope that our votes will not be bought and sold as a business among the candidates. But we have seen that some candidates are manipulated by more powerful people behind them.  We have seen that a lot of voters have economic problems, so that any person can give them extra money and they will vote for that person.

The candidates are campaigning nowadays to get the highest number of votes. The Election Day is near and everybody is afraid of this situation.
 
From my point of view, no one among the candidates is honest, and I do not agree with even one of them.  I am not sure for whom I should vote. Up to now no candidate has asked the people what they want, or what sort of candidate they want to vote for.