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25-9-2010

AAN Election Reporting - since polling day

AAN has closely followed the developments surrounding election day in Afghanistan and will continue to report as events unfold and stories develop. Over the last week you may have missed the following blogs:

2010 Elections 6: All Together Now:

This blog entry discusses the often heard proposition that 'Afghanistan is not Switzerland' and why it does not make sense when it comes to tomorrow's parliamentary elections in Afghanistan. It argues that elections of a much better quality were indeed possible and recalls how this chance was squandered, by not implementing electoral reform as suggested in various reports since the 2004/05 election cycle. And that this neglect today reflects the fact that the West has already withdrawn mentally, if not militarily yet. from Afghanistan. read more »< /a>

2010 Elections 7: Gardez on E-Day

Last year, on presidential E-Day, I reported how my driver and I hesitated still behind the Unama compound doors in Gardez, looked at each other and wondered whether we were a bit suicidal before we drove to the other end of town to see the opening of our first polling station. There had been warnings about possible violence. But the day turned out to be relatively calm read more »

2010 Elections 8: Let's talk turnout

Th e IEC has released a figure for the indicative turnout of yesterday's poll (40%). It is now being widely repeated and compared to other figures, including previous elections and turnout percentages in our home countries. It happens so often. For some reason nobody finds it necessary to understand where these random figures come from and what they mean. For some reason nobody finds it necessary to ask: 40% of what? read more »

2010 Elections 9: So how did the elections go?

Like others we have been fielding questions all day on how yesterday's elections went. And we've been saying the same thing in all its variations: it's too early to tell. It will take seve ral days for the initial reports and impressions to settle. It will take a bit longer to filter out the distortions. Then we will have a fair picture of the impact of violence and how bad the situation was in terms of manipulation and fraud. By that time the turnout figure, in terms of actual numbers, should have also stabilised. read more »

2010 Elections 10: The Case of Ahmadkhel

Up in the mountains along the border between Paktia and Khost provinces, where proud and strong tribes live and Taleban and HIG fighters roam, lies the district of Ahmadkhel. It is named after one particular branch of the large Dzadzi tribe(*), funnily enough after the one which i s smaller in number there. Another subtribe, the Hassankhel-Sekanderkhel, is much more numerous. And that exactly is the problem. read more »

2010 Elections 11: A cab ride through Herat voting

Impressions from one of the biggest and richest Afghan cities where high turnout and low levels of fraud were expected highlight how the appearance of a highly organized election can distract from the fault-lines all around: just few kilometres out of the nicely accessible Herat city centre, a whole slew of fraud techniques were being employed and security incidents taking place read more »

2010 Elections 12: Behind the complaints

Candidates, candidate supporters and observers are awaiting the posting of the preliminary results, to see what has been made of the messiness that surrounded much of the polling. The first partial result was released on 23 September 2010 - Panjshir with 66.7% of the vote counted - but the results per polling stations are still missing. The Electoral Complaints Commission, in the meantime, has received over 3000 complaints since the vote. The media is filled with complaining candidates, critical analysts and shrugging voters. Before the days become filled with lists and numbers a few conversation excerpts: read more »

2010 Elections 13: A 'Taleban Election Campaign'?

There have been statements and speculations recently about a possible involvement of the Taleban in the recent Afghan parliamentary elections, directly or indirectly. So, let's summarize what we have about this and see whether there was possibly was a 'Taleban elections strategy'. read more »

Keep checking the website, there will be much more.

With best regards, the Afghanistan Analysts Network