5 Apr 2014

Purple fingers and sitting ducks: how to hold an election, Afghan style

I’m sitting here getting a headache with the effort of thinking if there is a worse job. But Abdullah is all smiles and simply delighted to see us. And we are, well, reasonably delighted to see Abdullah – but actually not for all that long.

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Nothing personal you understand. It is just that Abdullah is the frisker at the front of the polling station queue in central Kabul. And it falls to him to frisk men for suicide bomb-belts. You see the issue.

There are other difficulties. This being Afghanistan every one wants to have you stay for tea, or yoghurt, or something at least, and please do say yes and refusal is rude – but every polling station is a target and you simply cannot hang around long anywhere.

Which is why you have to admire the long lines of men and then women (separate of course) who are waiting sometimes several hours to get in to vote.

Voting here is very public. You have to stand in the open for so long, a proverbial sitting duck for any drive-by suicide-bomber, grenade-artiste or just the standard AK47 spray-jobber.

Then there is the purple finger, stained in indelible ink to show you voted and cannot do so again no matter how pleasurable it was. Try explaining that away tomorrow night to some Taliban outfit on a country road who want to cut your finger off for doing so – cut your head off if you are unluckier still.

Puts all that “oh I can’t be bothered” and “whoever you vote for the government always wins” guff you get in the UK, into some kind of perspective, perhaps.

Out at District 17 the extraordinary sight of nonplussed cops trying to push back crowds of burkha-bedecked women trying to force their way more quickly to the voting booths.

Or then there’s Fazil in town who has brought along his three-year-old son Mohamad to partake of the experience.

As we speak the minister for employment (a woman) wafts by, trailing local TV crews (Kabul has 35 local channels) in her elegant wake: “I am a proud Afghan on this day,” she says, ballot duly posted, “godwilling the election will be as free and fair as possible and we will have a new president for the future.”

As free as possible – she knows the score. Of course the corruption will be rampant and huge numbers of Afghans will be intimidated out of voting. Election officials say around 10 per cent of polling stations across the country have not opened at all. But that’s rated a big success.

So far the Taliban and allied groups have not seriously derailed the polling today but the day is not done and nor is the civil war in this country.

That will probably be enough – likely more than enough, for the west to declare the election it is funding for 100 million dollars as free and fair enough.

And a result? Well don’t hold your breath. It is considered doubtful any of the three male frontrunners will poll more than the 50 per cent needed to be elected on the first poll so a run-off is considered likely. But hey – this is democracy or a stab at it, so don’t write anything off yet.

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