Window For Dialogue is going to broadcast live from Kabul during the Afghan parliamentary elections in September 2010.
From Save the Children. I think the aspirations of the children are shared by the majority of Afghans.
The elections in 2009 were extremely fraudulent and inherently unsound with voter registration cards for sale and wide spread corruption among staff at pooling stations, ballot stuffing, so called ghost pooling stations, ballot boxes just being stolen by armed men e.t.c.
[Dan Murphy who worked for the ECC described the election process in a presentation, delivered at the Overseas Vote Foundation Summit 2010 in Munich, Germany in March 2010.]
You can find the entire presentation on Youtube.
In the end a selection of election stations were audited and the conclusion was issued on the 18th of October 2009.
- ECC anulled 1,319,317 votes out of 5,662,758. (Or 23,2%)
- Estimated 995,802 of annuled votes for Karzai (or 75,4 %)
- Final percentage after reduction 48,29% to Karzai and 31,54% for Dr. Abdullah.
A run off election was called for and President Karzai agreed to accept the ECC’s decision on 20th October 2009. Eventually the run off was called because the runner up candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the elections because his demands of the IC chairman and a couple of commissioners should be replaced because they were deemed partial to Karzai. In the meantime President Karzai has changed the law unilaterally regarding the operations of the ECC which has endangered it’s critically neutral status. He has also decreed that no one who worked for ECC in 2009 can work for the organisation again which obviously minimises capacity building.
So what will the future parliamentary election bring?
AssociatedPress — 02 January 2010 — Afghanistan’s parliament dealt a stinging rebuke to President Hamid Karzai on Saturday by rejecting 70 percent of his nominees for a new cabinet, including a regionally powerful warlord and the country’s only female minister. (Jan. 2) President Karzai has been trying to solidify the power of the presidency even further especially by decreeing that the president alone could no0menee candidates to theparlaiment.
instablogs — 28 April 2010 — The Presidency has come into direct clash with the Legislative Assembly after implementing the controversial election laws decreed by the President earlier but rejected repeatedly by the Parliament. The step taken by the ministry of law to implement presidential decree instead of the laws suggested by the Parliament has angered the parliamentarians. This extra-constitutional step has resulted to what`s explained as an extraordinary session of the Parliament called on Saturday to consider accusations to be levelled against the incumbent president. The accusations to be deliberated upon would be `of National Treason` on Karzai`s part. The parliamentarians would also consider summoning all top officials hindering the implementation of Previous Election laws recommended by the Parliament and/or shutting the doors of Parliament for at least three days to register their protest against the resistance offered by the executive bodies in implementing laws proposed by the Parliament.
The mistrust in the government is endemic. The foreign aid is only just coming through with most of if going back to the aid countries through highly paid foreign contract workers. Reforms are still hard to spot outside Kabul. The Taliban is on the rise. Corruption and Heroin production is the order of the day. The Afghan people want change but in this grey world of no-truths it is an uphill path.
windowfordialogue
May 4, 2010
Form Youtube:
lausmi52207 This video is awesome and when these little children grow up, watch the positive changes that occur as they help transform their country into a great and peaceful country. All it takes is education and the will to make it happen. Great video I loved it. 8 months ago
pebruary Afghanistan would benefit if the US and NATO were to leave. 2