[Mb-civic] NYTimes.com Article: Afghanistan Votes

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Afghanistan Votes

October 12, 2004
 


 

For the first time in Afghanistan's long history, ordinary
people had a chance to vote for their nation's leader on
Saturday, and neither threats of terrorist disruptions nor
cynicism about alleged behind-the-scenes deal-making could
keep them away. 

This is a country where day-to-day security is so lacking
in most areas that international aid agencies operate at
their own peril, President Hamid Karzai rarely dared to
campaign outside his capital, and many voters were exposed
to intimidation attempts by local warlords. Yet millions of
men and women throughout the country bravely turned out to
affirm their faith in a democratic future. Their courage
deserves to be vindicated by parliamentary elections, which
have been repeatedly postponed and are now planned for next
year. 

The pacing of the Afghan elections has been to some degree
a matter more of political convenience for the Bush
administration than of what's best for Afghan democracy.
But the intermission will give the new president - widely
presumed to be Mr. Karzai, Washington's favored candidate -
time to correct the technical and organizational problems
that tarnished, but did not disable, Saturday's balloting.
These included poor controls over the distribution of voter
registration cards and a breakdown in the indelible-ink
system meant to be the main safeguard to keep people from
voting more than once. 

Mr. Karzai's 15 challengers initially called for the vote
to be nullified. Now several, including the most prominent,
have sensibly changed their minds, settling instead for
promises of an investigation by an independent panel
appointed by the United Nations. Given the level of public
support shown for this election, continuing to challenge
the results would have been risky, particularly if the
winning margin is large enough to dispel doubts about who
really won. 

The longer-term success of these elections will depend on
whether they confer the democratic legitimacy that
Afghanistan's next president needs to prevail over the
Taliban and assorted warlords without the indefinite
presence of American troops. The parliamentary elections
will be crucial because without a democratic mechanism for
brokering differences among the country's multiple ethnic,
language and religious groupings, there can be no
functioning national government. For these smaller-scale,
more localized contests, higher voting standards and
improved security are essential. 

The sight of those patient Afghans lined up to vote on
Saturday is another reminder that Afghanistan deserves more
help than it has gotten to rebuild after the devastations
of war and the Taliban. It needs the full concentration of
the United Nations and the United States to help it take
the additional difficult steps needed to make sure that the
brave hopes expressed on Saturday can be fulfilled and the
long-term future of constitutional government assured. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/12/opinion/12tue1.html?ex=1098605412&ei=1&en=a234bffd6a792f0d


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