WITH Sunday’s successful elections for both a national assembly and provincial councils, Afghanistan has passed another important milestone on its long road to peace and normality. Despite ominous threats of violence from the ousted Taleban, six million of 12 million registered voters went to the polls. Regardless of the candidates they supported, the very act of voting was a powerful assertion by each and every voter that they want an Afghanistan ruled by peace, law and popular will — instead of violence, intimidation and bloodshed. President Hamid Karzai summed it up after he had voted, saying that whatever the outcome, it was an excellent day for the country.
The actual voting was monitored by some 500 international observers who reported only a handful of irregularities. Understandably, election officials played down the drop to 50 percent in voter turnout from the almost 70 percent for the presidential election just under a year ago. While the US has insisted that the 5,800 candidates may have confused voters, it is more likely that six months of violence in which some 1,000 people have died, including seven candidates, did frighten some voters into staying at home. In such circumstances, it is in fact all the more significant that, as in Iraq, so many Afghans decided to run the risk and exercise their right to vote.
Nevertheless, ordinary citizens are probably still wondering if the democratic process will bring all the promised benefits. Certainly, many countries have failed to deliver on aid pledges made immediately following the fall of the Taleban. The government’s writ still runs strongest in and around the capital only; however, the traditional warlords appear to be slowly realizing that, by working through the central government, they can increase rather than dilute their regional power bases. It remains to be seen if, when the last votes have been counted, a national assembly will emerge that can work with Karzai and consolidate the political and social gains already achieved and continue to move forward to build a stable Afghanistan in which the men of violence are firmly isolated.
In time, all but the most extreme elements among the Taleban forces in the southeast of the country may themselves be persuaded to join the political process as some of their former colleagues did on Sunday. Except for a few diehard elements, the insurgency would then come to an end. Much will depend on whether elected members of the new national and provincial assemblies will be prepared to behave in a spirit of compromise and unity.
Not surprisingly, in a video shown yesterday on Al-Jazeera TV, Al-Qaeda’s Ayman Al-Zawahiri dubbed the Afghanistan general election a “farce” and in Al-Qaeda’s terms, it undoubtedly was. Because it was fair and open election in which voters were free to choose the candidate they wished and drop their folded ballots into clear ballot boxes for all the world to see. It was not the dark and murderous way of Al-Qaeda but a brave, public and transparent vote for peace.
