Afghanistan's first presidential elections took place according to plan and without the much anticipated violence, reports Peter Willems from Kabul Although tension was running high in Afghanistan during its first presidential elections on Saturday, incidents of violence were quickly contained. The Joint Election Management Body (JEMB), run by the United Nations and the Afghan interim government, yet to release the exact figures, reported that millions of voters turned out at the polls. "There were many threats and security concerns, but fortunately the polling process went well," Abdul-Latif Rahmani, professor of political science at Kabul University, told Al-Ahram Weekly. But even though the country remained relatively calm, the fairness of the election process was seriously contested when 15 presidential candidates running against President Hamid Karzai pulled out, blasting the process as "illegal" and "fraudulent". On election day it was discovered that some poll workers illegally used a washable kind of ink to mark voters, potentially allowing people to vote several times. The candidates demanded that the elections be stopped and boycotted the results. "We strongly condemn today's election which we consider fraudulent," said candidate Abdul- Satar Serat. The JEMB which had stepped in to correct the problem, said that the mistake occurred only at a few polling stations and decided to continue with the elections. Other monitoring teams supported the JEMB, declaring that the process was fair. The largest monitoring group that sent out 2,300 observers to the polls, the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan, said the election was carried out in a "fairly democratic environment". The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticised the candidates for demanding a recall of the election, saying this was "unjustified". "I would advise my fellow countrymen, the 15 other candidates, that we must all respect the fact that millions of Afghans came out on foot, in rain and snow and dust and waited for hours to vote," said Karzai. "If I win or someone else, the main winner will be the Afghan nation." A few days after the elections it was reported that many of the candidates were considering to drop the boycott after election officials announced that an independent commission would be formed to fully investigate irregularities in the voting process. The JEMB said that the preliminary count of the votes will take a couple of days, but the total count will take up to three weeks. On election day fighting between US forces and remnants of the Taliban regime erupted in the central province of Uruzgan, with 24 Taliban militants and one civilian reported killed. Other incidents included three Afghan soldiers killed and four wounded as a result of an attack by gunmen as the soldiers carried ballot boxes to Tirin Kot in Uruzgan. Two vehicles hit land- mines on Saturday in the Panjwai area which killed four people. Early the same morning, rockets were fired at a polling station in the Paktiya province, and a bomb went off at another voting site in the northern city of Mazar-e- Sharif, but no casualties were reported. The JEMB and US military sources said that no civilians gathering at the 22,000 polling stations were killed or injured. Die-hard Taliban vowed to disrupt the voting process, opposing the elections they see as being sponsored by the US. The Taliban claimed responsibility for numerous attacks over the last several months, including the attack on Karzai in September as he left Kabul, to campaign for the elections in the southeastern town of Gardez. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), US troops and Afghan security forces were responsible for preventing violence while Afghans went to the polls. Up to 12,000 Afghan soldiers and 25,000 local police protected the voting stations while around 9,000 NATO soldiers and 18,000 US troops stationed in Afghanistan were responsible for securing vast areas across the country. The JEMB was able to meet its goal before the elections by registering 10.5 million eligible voters out of Afghanistan's population of 25 million. Over 40 per cent of the registered voters are women. On election day, US President George Bush said that voting in Afghanistan was an achievement. "A marvelous thing is happening in Afghanistan," said Bush at a fund-raiser for Republican candidates. "Freedom is powerful. Think about a society in which young girls couldn't go to school, and their mothers were whipped in the public square, and today they're holding a presidential election." However, the person who takes on the job of leading Afghanistan will face a number of serious challenges in the war-torn country. Since the Taliban were ousted, Afghanistan has become divided, with warlords, supported by armed militia holding power in many areas throughout the country. Afghanistan has also become the world leader in supplying opium in the last three years. Fighting in the south between US forces and Taliban rebels has intensified leaving over 1,000 dead in the last 12 months. The Afghan National Army (ANA) has a long way to go to help stabilise the country. The goal of the US army is to build the forces of the ANA to 70,000 troops, though the number will not be reached for a number of years. But some are optimistic after seeing a better than expected electoral process. "People were really enthusiastic and happy to vote," said Rahmani, and the way it was run was very impressive; we didn't expect such fine participation." And with the elections carried out with much less violence than expected, some believe that the presidential elections could be the turning point for the country that has gone through over two decades of warfare.
