KABUL, 8 October 2004 — Afghan President Hamid Karzai vowed yesterday that a historic presidential election would be successfully held this weekend and reflect the people’s wishes despite inevitable sabotage attempts by Taleban fighters.
US-backed Karzai is the favorite to win Saturday’s poll, which should legitimize his rule and mark a turning point for a country shattered by more than a quarter-century of war.
He said in a BBC interview he was aware guns and intimidation would play a role in the election. “How long can we wait for the guns to go before we have elections?” Karzai said. “No election in the world is free of tension. Afghanistan is in a more serious situation because we are emerging out of war.
“But because of the massive enthusiasm and will of the Afghan people to go toward this election and to build their country in a democratic way, I very much hope this election will provide a result that they will like.”
Taleban threats to attack anyone taking part in the vote have not stopped more than 10.5 million Afghans of a population of about 28 million, from registering to directly elect their president for the first time.
Women make up more than 40 percent of those who have registered, organizers say. An additional 1.3 million refugees in Pakistan and Iran are also eligible to participate.
The fundamentalist Taleban, ousted from power in 2001 by US-led forces for refusing to hand over militant ally Osama Bin Laden, repeated warnings yesterday, saying fighters would do whatever they could to disrupt the vote.
“Those who wish to participate, despite the warning, can do so, but it will not be our responsibility if something happens to them,” Taleban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said by telephone.
The government said it was ready. “There is no doubt that terrorists will try to disrupt the election process,” said Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali. “If they attack an election site it will damage the process, but it cannot stop the election,” he said.
The election has been held up as a foreign policy success and a victory for democracy by US President George W. Bush. About 18,000 US-led troops are hunting Al-Qaeda and Taleban leaders and helping a 42,000-strong Afghan police and military force and more than 8,000 NATO-led peacekeepers provide security for the vote.
Bush, who faces re-election himself next month, is hoping a smooth Afghan election could provide a model for January polls in Iraq, which has been plagued by violence since US-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein last year.
Still, many in the south of Afghanistan, where Taleban fighters are most active, said women would not be voting. “It is not because I am scared by the threat of violence,” said turbaned, bearded Issa Mohammad, seated with a friend beside a dirt track on the outskirts of Kandahar city.
“It is just not in our tradition. Out of 100 families living in this area, I can tell you that no more than two or three of the women will have voter registration cards.” But plans are underway to ensure that the first person to cast a vote in the election will be a woman — but she will be in Pakistan.
Polls open at 7 a.m. (0230 GMT) on Saturday in Afghanistan. Polls for hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees in Pakistan will also open at 7 a.m., but time in Pakistan is half an hour ahead of that in their homeland, so the first vote will be cast at 0200 GMT.
The International Organization for Migration, which is conducting the refugee vote, said it arranged for an Afghan woman to be the first to mark her ballot at a polling station in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, at exactly 7 a.m. Pakistani time.
Karzai’s message to the Afghan people has been that they should get out and vote, not necessarily for him.
“I urge you to vote freely, but I promise you that if someone else wins I will respect them and I will respect their vote. It is your choice,” he said recently.
Two of the 18 candidates in the fray have said they were withdrawing in favor of Karzai. One was not considered to be very popular but the other, Sayed Ishaq Gailani, is from one of the country’s best-known families.
Karzai has always been the favorite to win, but the move by Gailani, a fellow ethnic Pushtun, could help him win the required 51 percent of the vote he needs to avoid a November runoff.
While Karzai is easily the best-known candidate, Afghanistan’s patchwork of ethnic groups could work against him if voting is on community lines. Pushtuns, the traditional rulers of Pakistan, make up about 40 percent of the population and Gailani’s withdrawal will help avoid a split in the Pushtun vote.
Two American soldiers were wounded in an attack in Afghanistan yesterday, three years to the day after the first US bombs fell on the country and two days before presidential elections. The soldiers and an Afghan civilian were injured when an improvised bomb exploded northeast of Gardez in Paktia province, said US military spokesman Maj. Mark McCann. He gave no further details.
Other sporadic attacks with rockets and explosives were launched around Afghanistan yesterday, the anniversary of the start of the US-led invasion in 2001, but without reported loss of life or injury, McCann said. “We are optimistic that the election process continues to move forward, and security is in place to ensure the process continues with minimal disruption,” McCann added.
On Oct. 7, 2001, a US-led coalition launched a bombing operation ahead of invading in a bid to capture Bin Laden. Bin Laden escaped, but the invasion toppled the Taleban regime which refused to hand him over to the US after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Ahead of the anniversary, the United States Embassy in Kabul warned American citizens to restrict their movements around the city for fear of violence before and during the election.
