The Spine-Chilling Emptiness of Afghanistan’s Voting Booths
October 1st, 2010On election day, a pack of bone-thin, restless dogs wandered into the main polling center in Sheikhabad, a town in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province. A pair of Afghan policemen tried to chase them away, but the determined bunch kept returning, looking for a shady redoubt from the morning sun. Eventually the police [...]
Ballot Stuffing Witnessed Amidst Troubled Afghan Vote
September 18th, 2010Saydabad, Afghanistan-When campaign aide Qais showed up at a polling center in the troubled province of Wardak Saturday morning, he found that guards would not allow him to enter. When he tried to peer through the windows, he found that workers had erected huge cardboard sheets to block the view.
Inside, election workers were busy stuffing [...]
Afghan Election: Taliban Not the Only Culprits of Campagin Violence
September 17th, 2010Kabul, Afghanistan —Daud Niazi, a candidate in Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections on Saturday, was returning from a campaign event in his native Laghman Province when a group of gunmen suddenly appeared by the roadside. They forced his campaign caravan to a halt, robbed the passengers, and then ordered the vehicles to get moving.
As the convoy pulled [...]
Likely Afghan Runoff Spurs Power-Sharing Talks
October 17th, 2009By Anand Gopal and Joe Lauria
KABUL — President Hamid Karzai failed to win a decisive majority in Afghanistan’s election, an official familiar with the ballot counting said, a development that has the two top candidates stepping up power-sharing talks to avoid a protracted runoff.
Results of an audit of suspect votes from the August polls are [...]
Taliban Punish Voters In Wake Of Afghan Elections
August 27th, 2009KABUL — The Taliban are attempting to exact revenge on Afghan voters and disrupt the ballot count — part of a campaign to exploit the political uncertainty after last week’s presidential election and try to undermine the results.
Since the Aug. 20 election, Taliban fighters have launched nearly a dozen attacks. They have severed the fingers [...]
Afghan Vote Threatened By Fraud Allegations
August 24th, 2009KABUL — Reports of fraud and intimidation from election-monitoring groups are mounting, undermining the legitimacy of Afghanistan’s presidential vote and posing a challenge for the U.S. and its Western allies, who initially declared the vote a success.
A linchpin of the international community’s strategy here, Thursday’s election was supposed to shore up the credibility of the [...]
Afghans Face Multiple Obstacles in Going to the Polls
August 21st, 2009QALA CHA, Afghanistan — Shershad Muhammad almost didn’t get to vote.
As the 60-year-old baker pedaled his bike toward a polling station in this village on Kabul’s outskirts early Thursday, a group of police officers forced him to dismount, tackled him and nearly arrested him. His offense: carrying a large black bag. It was full of [...]
Attacks Shake up Afghan Balloting
August 21st, 2009By Matthew Rosenberg, Anand Gopal and Yochi Dreazen
KABUL — Amid dozens of election-day Taliban attacks that claimed 26 lives, Afghans voted for president Thursday — but reports of low turnout and fraud made it unclear whether bombs or ballots would ultimately emerge the day’s victor.
Counting Ballots
Taliban militants had stepped up attacks for a week and [...]
Fighting Fraud in Afghanistan’s Elections
August 13th, 2009Commission chief struggles to keep the process honest; ‘You do the best given the circumstances.’
KABUL — Afghanistan’s presidential election next week is proving to be a complicated exercise in democracy. A raging insurgency threatens to close voting centers. Some of the 38 candidates maintain ties to armed militias. Others have threatened violence if they lose. [...]
Karzai Befriends Rivals to Improve Polls Odds
August 8th, 2009The unpopular Afghan President’s talent for deal-making and conciliation are expected to pave way for another 5-year term.
By Matthew Rosenberg and Anand Gopal
KABUL — When the U.S. and its allies first anointed Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan’s president nearly eight years ago, he was seen at home and abroad as an adept politician uniquely suited to [...]
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