MANILA, 19 May 2004 — Marred by violence, allegations of massive fraud and widespread irregularities, the Philippine elections were not an obvious model of democracy for the fledgling government in Afghanistan. But for a team of Afghan observers the May 10 polls were just the tonic.
“The elections were good. If we could have such elections in Afghanistan, it would be tremendous,” Mirwais Wardak told AFP. Part of a 10-member Afghan delegation, Wardak came to the Philippines to watch the electoral process where some 43.5 million were registered to vote in the presidential, parliamentary and local elections.
Wardak’s remarks come as opposition presidential candidate and film star Fernando Poe accuses President Gloria Arroyo’s administration of cheating her way to victory, with some opposition figures warning of massive street protests.
There have been 147 people killed in election-related violence since the start of campaigning in December, and a week after the elections the results are still not known due to the primitive system of hand-counting each vote. But such problems are minor compared with war-torn Afghanistan, which is due to hold its own presidential and parliamentary elections in September. “We expect in Afghanistan, elections will not be as peaceful,” says Wardak.
He expresses admiration for the army of Filipino schoolteachers who administered the voting, the civilian volunteer groups that monitored the polls and the professionalism of the security forces who stayed neutral.
Even the sight of representatives of rival political parties, peacefully watching the voting together, impressed him. Wardak, who was invited to the Philippines by the National Democratic Institute, an international non-government organization, is aware of the shortcomings of the Philippine elections.
He saw hordes of people who could not find their names on voting lists due to a change in election precincts and the way campaign paraphernalia was allowed into voting places in violation of the rules. But to him, this is just a step toward refining a process. “They should have good elections in the future,” he predicts. Even by world standards, the elections have been strange, pitting the Philippines’ top movie star, Poe, against the incumbent, Arroyo.
Discussion of issues were set aside as candidates lured crowds to campaign rallies by offering the dancers to deliver provocative routines. Even Arroyo broke into dance in one campaign rally.
“In Afghanistan, if the president is dancing to music, he would not be able to attract votes,” Wardak remarks. “Culturally, it is not possible to have dancing (at campaign rallies in Afghanistan),” he says.
While Filipinos have grown jaded and cynical about their elections, Wardak praises the volunteer spirit of all those involved, particularly the women who made up the bulk of the election administrators and poll monitors. “Everything was done with good intentions,” he says.
And as flawed as the elections in the Philippines were, “we expect worse elections in Afghanistan,” Wardak says, citing lack of security and trained, educated manpower, neutral observers and poor infrastructure.
Afghanistan is preparing for the first elections to be held since the fall of the Taleban regime in 2001. Wardak hopes that eventually some of the election practices in the Philippines can be transplanted to Afghanistan: use of local teachers as election administrators and organizing volunteer groups to monitor the vote.
But he concedes this will take years considering the poverty and disorder still common in that country. However, Afghanistan has a great motivator: unlike the Philippines, where the authoritarian rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos (1965-86) has largely been forgotten, the Afghans’ years of oppression are still fresh in their memories. “In Afghanistan, we had a very bad past and no one wants to have that bad experience in the future,” Wardak says.
