Afghanistan: Parliamentary Election Anxiety

Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections will be held on September 18th in Afghanistan. Tina Blohm reports from Paktika on the difficulties of running free and fair elections there.  The problems range from a shrinking number of polling places (190, down from 265 in last year’s presidential elections) due to security issues, to a lack of poll workers brought about by a fear of insurgent reprisals, and the fact that “According to the provincial head of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), after the 2009 election, 1555 of its staff members were blacklisted in Paktika alone due to allegations of fraud.”

Candidates have also found it difficult to campaign in Paktika: “Out of 22 candidates (one of lowest numbers in the country), six were in the province … the rest staying in Kabul mainly due to security concerns.” Blohm also discusses the rising anti-coalition sentiment in the province, raising the concern that international observers are going to be unable to perform their jobs when “the question of movement beyond the provincial capital is central – and in case of the internationals this is unrealistic.”