Clashes, then calm, as Afghans vote

Men stand in line to cast their ballots while taking part in Afghanistan's presidential election in Kabul on Aug. 20, 2009. (Nichole Sobecki/GlobalPost)

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KABUL — Votes are being counted and a tenuous calm has settled over the Afghan capital after a presidential election marked by sporadic violence — blamed on the Taliban — and varying levels of voter turnout across the country.

The U.N. reported that the vast majority of the country's 6,969 polling stations were able to open, according to the BBC. As expected, turnout was higher in the north of the country than in the south and eastern regions, where militancy is greater. 

Despite this week's attacks, turnout appeared to have been high in the provincial capital Lashkar Gah in the southern province of Helmand, the BBC reported.

Voting got off to a rocky start in Kabul, with multiple IED explosions causing little damage but making the point that this time, the opposition was not bluffing when they vowed to disrupt the elections for president and provincial council.

All over the capital, polling centers stood nearly empty.

“Maybe everyone is drinking tea, or sleeping,” said Abdul Mubir, manager of a polling centre in the Kart-e-Parwan neighbourhood of Kabul. “They may come later.”

But Nilo, an election observer for Hamid Karzai, was not so hopeful. She sat alone in a polling station reserved for women — only one had come by 8:30 a.m., 90 minutes after the polling centre opened.

“People are afraid, and they are staying home,” she said.

A news blackout by the Afghan government prohibited Afghan media from covering violence, but reports from all over the country indicated that major cities were being rocketed, there were sporadic clashes between Taliban and government forces, and, most damaging of all, polling centers throughout the country stood empty or were closed altogether.

It did not make for a successful start to what is being widely touted as “the most complicated elections ever.”

Results are not expected for several days; the deadline for preliminary results is Sept. 3. Exit polls are not in the Afghan tradition, and most voters, emerging from polling stations with ink-stained fingers, were reluctant to talk about their choice.

“I am voting for my country’s destiny,” said Attaullah Yaqubi, who described himself as a staff member of a local non-governmental organization.

 “I am not satisfied with what has been happening in my country.” Asked whether he had faith in the legitimacy of the elections, he pursed his lips and shook his head.

“There will be fraud,” he said. “Also, these coalitions of candidates and political figures – they are just trading the people’s future.”

The two major candidates — incumbent President Hamed Karzai and former Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah — have both made some pretty serious alliances over the past few months.

But Karzai, the undisputed master of such political sleight-of-hand, is way ahead. He received backing from two major power brokers in Afghanistan — Abdul Rashid Dostum and Hajji Mohammad Mohaqeq, both of whom ran against him during his first campaign, in 2004.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/afghanistan/090820/clashes-and-threats-spook-afghan-voters-0