HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Oxford Indymedia

Afghanistan Just before the Elections

Paul | 15.09.2005 12:54 | Oxford

All UN staff that have not left the country will be restricted to their accommodation for the next three days. I believe it will be relatively peaceful but then Afghanistan is always unpredictable. The Election complaints commission has had demos outside and threats on a daily basis

Afghanistan 3 Days before the Election

5,800 candidates for 249 parliamentary seats and 420 provincial council seats. There are about 400 candidates for Kabul alone. How long does it take to look through 400 candidates even if one has decided who to vote for prior to entering the polling station? At least 6 candidates have been killed but this does not help much. About 45 have been disqualified for being part of an armed group but none of these are too big or it would have been too dangerous to disqualify them. The biggest killers are in the cabinet anyway.

One regulation is that if a candidate dies then the one who came second will take the post and so on. Should not take commanders who are candidates long to work that one out.

48 of the not too big commanders have been struck of the list. A lot more (over 200) should have been struck off if it was not for resistance from the ministry of interior and ministry of defense. Many were considered too dangerous to be struck off. Deals have been made with them. However, those that have been struck off are demonstration on a daily basis outside the Joint Election Management Board office. There has been no violence yet but plenty of threats. Khazai through the Supreme Court is trying to get candidates reinstated.

Women candidates have received death threats and the men are worried. Some say it is not Islamic and others point to the hypocrisy of the west and the lack of women in the US senate.

This year, even considering the better record keeping, has seen a significant increase in violence. 48 US troops and 1,000 Afghans have died this year plus the odd international. Kabul is fairly peaceful but the south and east is bad. Some districts are likely to have no chance to vote due to security. A few days ago the defense ministers car was shot but later it was announced that it was not an assassination attempt but an accident when two groups of the national army was firing on each other. So it was ok it was just the army shooting at each other.

The real problems are likely to come when the results are announced in early November and then the challenges period starts for 10 days. Those who lost are likely to cause trouble and of course if a candidate dies the next moved into their place.

Then when the parliament is formed it will consist of independents not political parties and is likely to be weak and paralyzed. There will be a lot of horse trading and paying people off. The provincial councils will have no teeth. Their job is vague and mostly advisory. They will be paid by the governors so are not going to be too independent. The district council election elections were supposed to happen on 18th also. They will not happen as the control of districts is too controversial and the boundaries are not clear and disputed. In the future they will not happen as there will be no money or political will from abroad. As a third of the upper house would have been chosen by the district councils.

Paul

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

alternative

15.09.2005 13:16

Tali
Tali

If you dont like free elections in Afghanistan we can always bring back the Taliban,

Uzi


Who is this we?

15.09.2005 14:04

Sorry UZI who is this "we" who can bring back the Taliban, are you Pakistani SIS, CIA, MI6 or Mossad? Because they all thought killing Soviet soldiers, including Jewish soldiers was fine during the cold war against the "evil empire". Further, all these fine democratic institutions helped create, pay and arm both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. They are all as guilty as the killer in the child’s picture as they gave the Taliban and Al Qaeda the bullets, stingers, training, computers, ect to commit murder. Funny when the Pakistani, US, British or Israeli government pay people to kill it err...... not terrorism.

T.E. Lawrence


"Elections" Rigged

15.09.2005 17:34

If this was really about the Taliban or finding better treatment for Afghans, then the occupiers would be taking steps to disarm the warlords it funded and armed just before the invasion (the same groups the US actually helped the Taliban fight AGAINST, when the Taliban was still "good for business"), instead of allowing them to run rough-shod over much of the country, and grow narcotics right under their noses.

This was, of course, about building UNOCAL's oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea Basin to Central Europe, which incidentally, just opened two months ago. This is the reason that when the False Flags of 9/11 happened, US and UK troops had already been moved into position to invade the country.

Read Seymour Hersh. The Americans control the "election" results, just like they do within their own country ...

Read Seymour Hersh


Uzi - you are a know-nothing plonker

15.09.2005 20:11

The Taliban and your friends the narco-warlords never went away.

That's why Karzai's "government" is allowing them to take part in the election. In fact, Uzi, you muppet, they even offered Mullah Omar an amnesty.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4529653.stm

Boycott Israeli Goods


Publish your news
-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Oxford Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech