KABUL, 18 September 2005 — Eleven people were killed in guerrilla clashes on the eve of today’s elections in Afghanistan but UN organizers said they were confident voting could be held across the country in spite of Taleban threats. Enthusiasm among Afghans to vote in their first free legislative elections in more than 30 years has been high and the commander of US forces in the country predicted a record turnout of the 12.5 million registered to vote.
Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry said Taleban insurgents would not hesitate to attack election workers or voters to try to disrupt the ballot, but they would not succeed. “Tomorrow that election is going to go. There will be some violence, but it’s going to go,” he told Reuters in an interview.
A high turnout will be a boost for the US administration, allowing it to portray Afghanistan as a success to set against the gloom from Iraq and Hurricane Katrina in the United States. The top UN official in the country said the elections signaled the emergence of a new political culture and showed that war-torn Afghanistan could resist the rule of the gun.
Jean Arnault, the UN secretary-general’s special representative, condemned violence — in which seven candidates and six poll workers have died as well as many members of the security forces — but told a news conference the militants had failed to disrupt preparations. “We are very confident that those extremists will also fail to disrupt and derail polling day tomorrow,” he said.
Officials reported that four Taleban were killed in other incidents around the country, while 20 rebels were arrested for trying to blow up a huge dam.
Afghan and US forces arrested 20 suspected Taleban rebels who were planting bombs at a hydroelectric dam in Helmand province, where an election candidate was assassinated on Thursday, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. A patrol spotted the rebels as they laid the explosives at the Girishk dam and they were arrested after an hour-long exchange of fire, ministry spokesman Mohammed Zahir Azimi told AFP.
The Taleban vowed, but failed, to disrupt last October’s presidential election, won by US-backed candidate Hamid Karzai, when more than eight million people turned out to vote. The Taleban have called on Afghans to boycott today’s poll for a national assembly and councils in 34 provinces, and warned they could be caught up in attacks on foreign troops.
Overnight guerrilla attacks underlined the threat. Four policemen were killed and two wounded when guerrillas ambushed a police patrol south of Kabul overnight, while seven guerrillas were killed after they ambushed a police convoy in Zabul, a southern hotbed of militant activity, police said.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in militant violence this year — most of them guerrillas, but including 49 US troops — the bloodiest period since US-led forces overthrew the Taleban in 2001 for failing to give up Sept. 11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden. One candidate from among more than 5,800 standing was killed this week and another wounded, but there has been no dramatic rise in violence in recent days.
Security has been stepped up throughout the Muslim country with about 100,000 troops, including Eikenberry’s force of 20,000 and 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers, guarding voters who will cast their ballots at 6,000 polling centers.
Afghanistan’s second city, Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taleban and the scene of repeated militant attacks, was virtually deserted.
All traffic was ordered off the streets until Sunday evening, after voting finishes. Most shops and businesses were closed and election workers were busy preparing polling centers.
