Lessons from Afghanistan on how to hold an election

Election workers count ballots at an Independent Election Commission office in Herat, Afghanistan. Voters turned out in high numbers despite bad weather and threats of violence from the Taliban. Aref Karimi / AFP / Getty Images
06 May, 2014

The results from the Afghan presidential elections were announced on 26 April, three weeks after polls were conducted. As most predicted, they indicated a runoff between the two top candidates: the former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, and the former finance minister and chairman of the Transition Coordination Committee, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. The runoff is likely to take place at the end of May, after which history will be made with a peaceful transfer of power for the first time in Afghanistan.

In the year preceding these elections, there was considerable cynicism about the process from various pundits in the domestic and international media. As international organisations pulled out their observers barely days before the polls, the international media began to cast doubt on the election process with headlines like ‘Credibility of Afghan Vote in Doubt as Observers Flee Violence,’ as seen in the New York Times.

Rumours ran rampant that the incumbent president, Hamid Karzai, would not let elections take place. The bazaars and Western diplomatic circles were abuzz with gossip that President Karzai would bring in new legislation through parliament that would allow him to stay in power for more than the two terms stipulated by the current law of the land.

There was also widespread scaremongering in these circles about a sharp increase in Taliban attacks that would derail the process, and routine Taliban threats were given a lot of credence by the international and local media. A day ahead of the polls, the Washington Post carried the headline, ‘Fear of Violence Shadows Afghanistan’s Provinces on Election Eve.’ There was also talk of possible electoral misconduct that would apparently “delegitimise” the process.

None of those predictions came true.

Instead, what we witnessed was that President Karzai did not utter a single word about changing the law to hold on to power. Polling took place with extraordinary participation, with a turnout of nearly 60 percent as opposed to 38 percent in 2009. The Taliban did mount some attacks ahead of the election but they were far fewer than the attacks before the 2009 elections. The security forces performed brilliantly on polling day and, according to the spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, twenty attempted suicide attacks were prevented. There were some reports of polling frauds and irregularities registered with the Independent Election Complaints Commission by various parties, but the numbers were not big enough to influence the outcome of the first round of results in any way. The same critics who spoke of a “doom and gloom” scenario are now praising the Independent Election Commission for conducting the elections fairly and are lauding the Afghan citizens for taking part in elections without fear.

I had the opportunity to travel to Afghanistan three times in the last year, and this included a month’s stay just ahead of the 5 April elections. I also worked with the local media and mentored young Afghan journalists, which gave me the chance to go out and observe the election campaigns and interact with ordinary Afghans. Men and women stood in long queues to register to vote. They waited patiently for hours to have their voter ID cards made. At one voter registration centre, we came across a woman in her sixties who had come to wait for the fourth consecutive day to get her voter card done. Many women on the streets, at campaign rallies and voter registration centres repeatedly echoed the same sentiment: “In the past, our men told us whom to vote for but this time we will choose our own candidates.”

Even though the Taliban had threatened to derail the election process with suicide attacks, tens of thousands of people defied them by coming out to attend campaign rallies. The momentum continued on to election day with voters turning up in large numbers despite heavy rain and snow. In many polling stations across the country, election officials did not anticipate the numbers and ran out of ballot papers by midday.

The media also played a vital role. A young generation of Afghan journalists mainly from radio, television and news agencies like TOLO, 1TV, Shamshad TV, Arman FM, and Pajhwok Afghan News were present to chronicle Afghanistan’s engagement with democracy, and reported news back into Afghan homes. Although their production skills were rough around the edges, their journalistic standards were high and their ethics were strong, and they probed issues such as governance, corruption, economy and security without playing favourites between parties. Unlike in India, the world’s largest democracy, there were no aspersions of “paid news,” even though the sector has low commercial revenue, with advertisements mainly coming from local Afghan telecom or construction companies.

Apart from news gathering, which was the strongest pillar of their output, the journalists explored other formats like presidential debates on TOLO News, and open forum discussions conducted by the BBC for the state run television RTA. This way ordinary Afghans could interact with their future leaders and ask them tough questions. Such an open and robust political engagement between the media, politicians and the audience is somewhat absent in a much more evolved democracy such as India’s. Like other Afghans, the newsroom managers in Kabul, too, had their own political views. But at the same time many realised the need to keep their output uninfluenced by their views, lest it damage their professional reputations.

This election is undoubtedly a watershed moment for Afghanistan. Afghans have shown all intentions of nurturing the seeds of democracy that have sprouted, belying every kind of cynicism and threat. When news of the withdrawal of international observers reached the country’s biggest and most successful independent news agency, Pajhwok Afghan News, its director, Danish Karokhel said to me, “It’s alright. We are not leaving. We’ll observe our elections and make sure that it takes place free and fair.”


Nazes Afroz is former executive editor for BBC World Service, South and Central Asia. He has been visiting Afghanistan regularly since 2002 and has co-authored a cultural guidebook on Afghanistan.