Afghan army soldiers ride on military trucks during a patrol in Kabul September 17, 2005. Nearly 6,000 Afghan men and women have signed up to run in the country's first parliamentary polls in more then 30 years, scheduled for September 18. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood

Karzai calls for high voter turnout - Pajhwok Afghan News 09/17/2005 By S. Mudassir Ali Shah

KABUL - President Hamid Karzai Saturday urged registered Afghan voters to exercise their universal suffrage in large numbers to make landmark parliamentary elections a rip-roaring success.

In a brief televised message to the Afghan nation, the US-backed leader described Sunday's vote as a "turning point" in the history of the post-conflict Central Asian country. He appealed for a higher voter turnout in the elections, marking the culmination of the Bonn process.

He underscored the election of honest candidates committed to the reconstruction and prosperity of Afghanistan and imbued with a genuine desire for serving the war-weary nation, which is still struggling to chart its way to stability.

The president, who read out his short message both in Pashto and Dari, called for his compatriots to measure up to the occasion and come out in large numbers to elect people capable of uniting Afghanistan and coping with formidable challenges like widespread poverty and illiteracy.

While underlining the importance of the parliamentary election, Karzai reminded the Afghans it was a great opportunity for them to put their country on the road to democracy and progress. Frittering away the chance was least affordable, he observed, saying the Afghans must act to end their dependence on others.

On the eve of poling day, at least 12 people were killed in different parts of the country in militant-linked violence and dozens arrested with bombs and explosives. Seven candidates have perished and several sustained injuries in attacks in the bloody build-up to the first post-Taliban ballot.

Seven dead in fresh fighting ahead of Afghan polls

Kabul (AFP – 09/17/05) - Seven people including policemen and suspected Taliban rebels were killed in fresh violence in Afghanistan, officials said, on the eve of the first parliamentary polls for a generation.

Gunmen from the ousted Taliban regime, which has vowed to disrupt Sunday's landmark vote, ambushed the police chief of Kabul's Musayi district as he was on patrol late Friday, interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said.

"Musayi police chief and two policemen were killed and two other police were wounded last night after they were ambushed by enemies of peace," Mashal told AFP on Saturday.

Afghan officials commonly use this term to refer to militants from the hardline Islamic Taliban movement who are waging a comeback insurgency across swathes of southern and eastern Afghanistan.

It is believed to be the first time a senior police official has been killed in Kabul since the Taliban were overthrown by US forces and Afghan militiamen in late 2001.

In another incident late Friday two suspected Taliban gunmen were killed in a firefight that broke out after they attacked highway police in the restive southeastern province of Zabul, Mashal said.

The police had been patrolling the main road between Kabul and Kandahar. "Two Taliban were killed last night in Jildak district and one police pickup truck was burned. There were no casualties on the police side," Mashal said.

Afghanistan's defence ministry said another two suspected Taliban were killed and 17 others arrested during eight separate "sweep-up" operations across the country on Thursday and Friday.

Afghan troops killed the two militants in Kandahar province, the former stronghold of the Taliban, a ministry statement said. On Friday suspected Taliban ambushed the police chief of Maruf, another district in Kandahar province, officials said.

Malim Sayeed and his guards survived the attack but two Taliban were wounded in an exchange of fire between police and rebels, said Mohammed Qaseem, police chief of neighbouring Arghistan district.

Separately, 16 rockets and missiles aimed at polling stations were discovered and defused in Logar province, southeast of Kabul, Mashal said.

Two Pakistani nationals carrying remote-controlled bombs were meanwhile arrested near the government headquarters of the eastern province of Kunar, provincial governor Assadullah Wafa said.
Police in the restive eastern city of Jalalabad said they had arrested another three Pakistani nationals in connection with a September 13 bomb attack on a candidate in the polls.

"They are suspected of being involved in the attack on parliamentary candidate Ghafar Pacha in which two police were wounded and one of the two later died in hospital," said Qadeer Khan, the city's deputy police chief.

Seven candidates for the elections have been killed since late July. On Thursday suspected Taliban dragged a candidate from his house and shot him dead in the southern province of Helmand. More than 1,000 people have been killed in a wave of violence in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest since the Taliban fled the capital.

Mosque, school set ablaze in Khost, Logar provinces - Pajhwok Afghan News

09/16/2005 By Abdul Majid Arif & Qadeem Wayar

PUL-I-ALAM/KHOST - A mosque and a school were set ablaze by unidentified outlaws in Khost and Logar provinces overnight. A tribal elder Mualim Mohammad Wali Shah told Pajhwok Afghan News the mosque was burnt in Landi Kalay, south of the Khost City. He said the mosque was recently constructed with huge financial cost.

Wali Shah added the tragic incident had sparked a wave of anger among residents of the area and they wanted immediate action against the criminals. Khost deputy intelligence chief Naqibullah Asmati confirmed the burning of the mosque but added: "This may be an accident." It merits a mention here that the mosque is situated near the base of coalition forces in Khost.

Elsewhere in the Qalawi Wazir area of the Logar province, armed men burned a middle school for boys overnight. Chief of the crime branch of the police headquarters, Colonel Qudratullah said miscreants set ablaze the school to spread harassment among people ahead of the parliamentary elections.

He said investigations were on but no arrest had been made thus far. It is pertinent to recall that unidentified gunmen burned a girls' school in the Baraki Barak district of the same province some three months back.

Press Briefing by Jean Arnault - Special Representative of the Secretary-General - at the Joint Electoral Management Body Media Centre - Kabul – 17 September 2005

I thought it would be good to have an opportunity to talk with you about the exercise that the country is about to embark on. I will be giving you just a few brief points and then get into the question and answer period.

I will start by restating our very very firm condemnation of the violence that has been targeted at the electoral process, at candidates, and very recently, last night in fact, targeted at the police and the security forces that are doing their best to provide a safe environment for this critical exercise.

I would say perhaps that the only thing that mitigates our sense of outrage and indignation is the fact that we are convinced that having failed to disrupt the candidate nomination process, having failed to disrupt the process of registration, having failed again to make a dent in the electoral campaign of the past three weeks, we are very confident that those extremists will also fail to disrupt and derail polling day tomorrow.

Of course the most important stage of this election has not yet unfolded; polling day and it is always a little too early, and certainly a little too risky to want to pass judgment on the electoral process as such. But at the risk of displeasing those who have a more sceptical turn of mind than mine, I believe we can already notice, with a great sense of reward, some very very remarkable features of the process that we are witnessing.

You know that together with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, we have been looking very very closely at the way in which this process has been conducted for the past several months. And one thing that comes across very very clearly to me is that what we are seeing today is an unmistakable confirmation that there is in this country the emergence of a new political culture.

Of course the involvement of women, not only now as voters but also as candidates, is probably the more visible part of that new culture. But I actually believe that in addition to this pluralism a sense of freedom of assembly and opinion, a sense that the legacy of the rule of the gun can be resisted is now taking route and I think that is alongside the importance of the future parliament. That culture is perhaps one of the most important outcomes of the Bonn process that has unfolded across the election of the transitional authority, the adoption of the constitution, the presidential and now the parliamentary election.

My third point is an important one. It is to express the full support of the United Nations to the work of the JEMB (Joint Electoral Management Body), its Chairman, Bissmillah Bissmil, the entire Secretariat, and of the Electoral Complaints Commission.

A lot of work has gone into learning the lessons from last year, perfecting procedures, finding ways of addressing the shortcomings, the creation of an independent complaints commission, is indeed one of the major features. There has been criticism, here or there, and probably some of this criticism is welcomed, but let me tell you very very clearly no one could have done better.

And my last point is to echo the address of Chairman Bissmillah Bissmil to the people of Afghanistan, and I do it respectfully and somehow with shame not to be able to do it in Dari and Pashto. And it is an appeal to put the past behind and to open a new era in Afghanistan, a new era of democracy and freedom. This is an important exercise, first and foremost because it expands the limits of democracy and freedom to the country as a whole, to every district and every province. It is also an opportunity to do something that the country needs and that is establishing a strong and representative parliament that will represent the views of all Afghans in passing laws, in controlling the workings of the government, and in organizing national debates on all those national issues that the country needs to overcome.

And I will admit that to us at the United Nations and to all those who have been working with Afghans for the past four years, nothing could reward us more than to see the people of Afghanistan giving tomorrow again, like during the presidential election, a lesson to international public opinion, in public participation, maturity and dignity. Thank you very much. I will now take your questions.

Questions and Answers

Question: You spoke about the occurrence of violence? Can you be more specific about where and how this violence has happened?

Jean Arnault: It’s paradoxical that almost none of the violence that has taken place in the last three or four months has actually being as a result of the elections, contrary to what many people and ourselves, had expected. But unfortunately there are still forces that see the participation of Afghans in these elections as something that will damage their cause and agenda for Afghanistan. They have clearly tried to target international and national staff, candidates and police, and international forces. If we have learnt anything over the last few years it is even when we, the international, community see worrying signs of insecurity, the Afghans will not let anything stop them from participating.

Question: In a recent interview you criticized the process of democratization in Afghanistan as a failure. Is this the case?

Jean Arnault: This is probably another one of the interviews that I don’t recognize what I have been trying to say. No I certainly do not think the process of democratization is a failure. If anything, I think it has been the most outstanding and successful part of the Bonn process. There are many shortcomings, but one of them is not the failure of the Afghans to take advantage of the opportunity offered by the process of democratization.

Question: Can you state what you think has been achieved and what could still be achieved?

Jean Arnault: There are two kinds of shortcomings – some of them are absolute and others are relative. What is important is to be aware of the level of expectation that the Bonn process created. And also how much expectation the election process has created. Some have said that somehow reconstruction and security are lagging behind the political process, and I think this is true. I think that in addition to all those needs out there that have not been fulfilled, there is another element of pressure on the international community and the government and institutions – and that pressure is to deliver very quickly on the dividends of democracy. I you allow me a small commercial regarding the post-Bonn agenda. I believe that the Afghans and the international community have every reason to maintain their very close cooperation that they have enjoyed over the last three and a half years, precisely to try to deliver quickly on these dividends in terms of democracy, security, reconstruction and counter-narcotics.

Question: (translated from French) There is a certain amount of confusion as to the list of candidates who risk being eliminated. The fact that some of these candidates can be eliminated after the voting process, is this not a catastrophe waiting to happen? Do you not risk having acts of violence happening between the end of the voting period and the end of the counting period in October?

Jean Arnault: (translated from French) The possibility of being disqualified is something that is very new to this electoral process. We should not be all that surprised that a lot of people find this to be a troubling and risky new aspect of the electoral process. But I think that one of the important aspects of these parliamentary elections, as opposed to the Presidential Election, is precisely to have for the very first time, trying to apply a law with all the difficulties that this rigorous process has to offer. And as you have mentioned, the possibility of disqualification after the elections for violations of the electoral law, that this possibility can be exercised. But I think this is part and parcel of the learning curve associated with the legality of this electoral exercise.

Question: How concerned are you that given the number of losers [candidates] that we are going to have, and given the time-line [lag] between when parliament is organized and when [the parliamentarians] can bring about changes to [for] people in their constituencies - given the combination these factors, will people fall back on the violent habits of the past?

Jean Arnault: We were all struck last year by the peaceful nature of the presidential exercise, we all tended to believe that faced with the same challenge, the Afghans will step up to the plate. But one of our main concerns is that the number of losers will male the process of counting and the process of certification of the results a difficult one. I don’t see any other solution to this other than appealing to the candidates to meet the expectations that the Afghans have that this will be an exercise in civic participation. At the end of the day, people will have to learn that part and parcel of the democratic process it to respect the outcome, whether it is positive or negative. I hope that this lesson has already been learnt, but if we have to go through a process of appeal by everyone, we will do it.

Question: Can you tell us about the most recent security incidents against national and international forces and tell us about the casualties?

Jean Arnault: I understand from the Minister of Interior that last night a group of police on patrol in the south of Kabul were ambushed. Three were killed and two were injured. I understand that this incident has been attributed to extremist forces.

Afghanistan goes to polls with high hopes

Kabul (AFP) - From remote mountain villages to war-scarred cities, millions of Afghans vote Sunday in key parliamentary elections that will usher in the next phase of the country's slow recovery from decades of conflict.

Security is high following a warning by the ousted Taliban regime that civilians could be hurt if they go to the polls, and after a spike in violence including the killing of a seventh candidate on Thursday.

But enthusiasm is palpable amongst the nearly 12.5 million people who are expected to cast their ballots at around 26,000 polling booths from 6:00 am (0130 GMT) Sunday.

"Under the Taliban you couldn't even choose your own haircut, but now we have democracy, freedom of speech and reconstruction," said Abdul Qadir, 23, who works for a foreign non-governmental organisation in the western city of Herat.

Nearly 5,800 candidates from all walks of life are standing for all 249 seats in the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the national assembly, and for the 34 provincial councils, which have a total of 420 seats.

Organisers backed by police have been shipping out ballot boxes and papers during the past week, using trucks and helicopters as well as donkeys and camels to reach far-flung corners, officials said.

Almost every available space in Kabul and other cities has been covered with gaudy posters while some vehicles promoting candidates drove through the streets with their horns blaring, in defiance of a 48-hour ban on campaigning.

The polls, the first of their kind since 1969, represent the latest stage in Afghanistan's path to democracy since US-led forces overthrew the hardline Taliban nearly four years ago after the September 11, 2001 attacks. They follow the victory of US-backed leader Hamid Karzai in a historic presidential election last October.

"The parliamentary poll will be much more complicated than the presidential election, given the number of candidates and the ballots," Francesc Vendrell, the European Union's special representative for Afghanistan, told AFP. "But the electoral process has gone smoothly. We could have had many technical problems but it didn't happen."

Analysts and officials say the polls are a step forward, with the reservation for women of around a quarter of all parliamentary seats being a particular cause for optimism.

But they also warn that they will not solve all of Afghanistan's problems, such as the continuing power of regional warlords, a booming drug trade and a resurgent Taliban.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi on Friday told Afghans to steer clear of polling centres or risk being caught up in attacks. The militia claimed responsibility for assassinating parliamentary candidate Abdul Hadi in the restive southern province of Helmand late on Thursday.

The same day a roadside bomb killed an Afghan interpreter and wounded two US soldiers during a security patrol for the polls in the central province of Ghazni. "He died trying to make Afghanistan a better, safer place for his people," US military spokesman Jerry O'Hara said.

U.S. predicts big Afghan poll turnout, security a worry - Reuters

09/17/2005 By David Brunnstrom

KABUL - The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan said he expected a big turnout in Sunday's landmark elections, but a guerrilla attack on a police convoy overnight underlined the security threat hanging over the poll.

Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry said on the eve of the vote that insurgents would not hesitate in attacking unarmed election workers at thousands of polling stations around the country.

Seven guerrillas were killed in the failed attempt to ambush the police convoy in Zabul province, which has been a hotbed of militant activity.

Security, especially in the south and east where the Taliban are most active, has been the main worry in the run-up to the parliamentary and provincial elections but Afghan and U.S. officials say they are confident polling can be held.

"I think that tomorrow what we are going to have with the elections here, we're going to have a record turnout," Eikenberry told Reuters in an interview at the main U.S. military base in Kabul.

The Taliban, who have denounced the polls and called for a boycott, have claimed responsibility for killing several candidates, the latest shot on his doorstep early on Friday. They have vowed attacks on foreign troops over the election period.

Eikenberry said security for the $159 million (87.9 million pounds) U.N.-run elections was good but he expected more trouble.

"We are up against an enemy that will not hesitate to attack unarmed election workers ... to try to attack innocent Afghan citizens trying to express their will in a representational government," he said.

But Eikenberry said the insurgents would not succeed. "Tomorrow that election is going to go. There will be some violence, but it's going to go," he said. "Tomorrow, when you think about this, in a country of 26 million, we're going to have over 10 million people that go out and express their will to put a representative government in place."

Eikenberry commands a mainly U.S. international force of about 20,000 troops battling More than 1,000 people have been killed this year -- most of them militants, but including 49 U.S. troops. It has been the bloodiest period since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 for failing to given up Osama bin Laden, architect of the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

The Taliban vowed, but failed, to disrupt last October's presidential election, won by U.S.-backed Hamid Karzai, when more than eight million people turned out to vote. Asked how long he thought it would take to defeat the insurgency, Eikenberry said this would depend on the work after the elections.

"The question is how long will it take for Afghanistan to move forward with building its government and building its security forces and building its justice sector and moving forward with reconstruction. It's all tied together here.

"There is not a military solution to the violence in Afghanistan. The military plays a role in this campaign but as important and more important is standing up the government and we go and take a big step forward tomorrow with the seating of this parliament."

Security has been stepped up across the Muslim country with about 100,000 troops, including Eikenberry's force and 10,000 NATO-led peacekeepers guarding voters, who will cast ballots for more than 5,800 candidates at more than 6,000 polling centres.

Enthusiasm among Afghans for what will be their first free legislative polls in more than 30 years has appeared high, but rights groups have expressed concern about intimidation by warlords who have been allowed to run in the polls and militants.

Analysts have also questioned whether the parliament will be more of a help or a hindrance to Karzai, given that the election is being fought on non-party lines. It is expected to produce a fragmented assembly with politicians looking at local rather than national interests.

Pakistan's military on alert on eve of Afghanistan elections

AFP - Thousands of Pakistani troops backed by gunship helicopters patrolled the border with Afghanistan to stop militants crossing to attack key Afghan elections, the military said.

About 80,000 troops deployed to the rugged Pakistan tribal areas bordering Afghanistan ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections were on alert and had taken positions to seal the border, a military statement said.

Troops were also tracking suspected militants thought to be hiding in the remote North Waziristan tribal area near the border with Afghanistan, a military spokesman told AFP.

Hundreds of militants from Afghanistan's fundamentalist Taliban regime are believed to have fled to Pakistan with their Al-Qaeda allies after US-led forces brought their reign to an end in late 2001. Afghan officials say militants cross the porous border to launch attacks in Afghanistan and then return to hideouts in Pakistan.

Pakistan's army established 760 posts along a key 600-kilometre (370-mile) stretch of the border to stop militants crossing over ahead of the election, the military statement issued in the northwestern city of Peshawar said.

Troops had been given orders to "maintain extra vigilance and foil attempts by terrorists to sabotage the political exercise in the neighbouring country," top military commander Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain said.

The Taliban has vowed to disrupt Afghanistan's parliamentary elections, the first in the war-shattered country in three decades. Seven candidates have been killed in the run-up to the poll.

Slow progress spoils Afghans' mood - Chicago Tribune 09/17/2005 - Approaching elections shadowed by worries over water, roads

HERAT – President Hamid Karzai tried to tell the crowd that Sunday's parliamentary elections were another step in rebuilding the war-torn country.

But the crowd's patience was in short supply. Once Mr. Karzai was finished, men in the audience raised their hands, stood up and made demands. One wanted the land promised earlier for teachers. Another wanted his government job back. Another wanted birth certificates and identity cards.

"I left the good life to come to this country," said Mamor Ghulamnabi, 48, a refugee who returned from Iran six months ago. Mr. Karzai told another official to give Mr. Ghulamnabi a job. But most requests are not so easy in Afghanistan, battered by 23 years of war and an ongoing insurgency.

In the days before the historic elections Sunday, the same litany of complaints can be heard throughout the country: bad roads, bad power, no water, no jobs, questionable security. Many Afghans feel that not enough has been accomplished since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001. A constitution has been adopted, a president elected, but still, change has seemed minor.

"We are very happy, because this government brought stability," said Ghaosuddin Zelgai, 44. "But the process of reconstruction is going very slowly. We have not seen that much."

These elections are the final step in an international agreement to set up a functioning democracy in Afghanistan. And many voters are wildly optimistic. They see the parliament as the answer to their problems. Their expectations are so high that they face certain disappointment, some experts say.

"We demand a lot," said Aqagul Ahmad, 50, a day laborer in Herat. "See our bodies covered in dirt? We have no water to wash ourselves. We have no water to drink. We want roads. And of course, we want houses. We think a new parliament will help us."

In the Panjshir Valley, voters want the country to remember the men who had fought to overthrow the Taliban and the communists. In Kabul, voters want roads, jobs and lower prices. In a village called Deh Yahya, they want water.

Few Afghans said they were afraid to vote, despite threats from Taliban remnants to disrupt the election and ongoing election-related violence.

Seven people with voter registration cards were found dead Tuesday in the troubled southern province of Uruzgan. On Wednesday, a female candidate was wounded while campaigning in eastern Nuristan province. On Thursday night, suspected Taliban gunmen killed another candidate in southern Helmand province, the sixth candidate to be slain. Four election workers have also been killed.

U.S. Ambassador Ronald Neumann said Thursday that he expected some violence but believed nothing would stop the election.

There's plenty of choice. Candidates include former communists, the fighters who defeated the communists, warlords who battled in the civil war, and one-time Taliban members.

"Partyless system will harm the country" - Qanooni - Gulf News 09/15/2005

The man who hopes to be speaker of the new parliament in Afghanistan yesterday said President Hamid Karzai's attempt to promote a partyless democracy would harm the country.

Former education minister Younus Qanooni lashed out at the "government's anti-political party stance" in an exclusive interview with Gulf News at his refurbished Khairkana home ahead of Sunday's key parliamentary elections.

"They say they are for democracy, but we believe those who want to destroy political parties are the ones that in reality are against democracy," Qanooni said.

"If we want to be a real democracy, we have to stop looking back, stop adopting divisive, ethnic identities and unite, under not so much an ideological platform but a practical agenda for political, economic and social reform."

Qanooni, who fought alongside legendary Tajik commander Ahmad Shah Massood and was injured in the leg during the struggle against the oppressive Taliban, has launched a new party called Afghanistan Naveen.

Together with 14 other small parties, he has fashioned an opposition alliance that includes feared Hazara commander Mohaqiq, as well as Pashtuns like Taj Mohammad Wardak.

Dressed in a crisp white shirt and slacks, unlike the flowing chappan (robe) and shalwar that he normally sports, this was a new Qanooni as he aired his reservations about the government's attempt to pitch for votes on an ethnic basis, rather than encourage political parties that reflect the country's growing political maturity.

"Afghanistan is a land of minorities, we don't have one single ethnic group that is in a majority, that is say 50 per cent plus one. Instead we have many, marginally larger or smaller than the other. So in a parliament based on ethnicity it would be chaos, multiple voices. What we need are political parties that have left ethnic identities behind, that ensures equity participation for all."

"Look at India, its president is from a minority community. He's a Muslim. Its prime minister is from another minority community. He's a Sikh."

About 11.2 million Afghans will get their second taste of the rough and tumble of electoral politics on Sunday in the first-ever election to parliament and provincial councils, after presidential elections last year when Karzai won a landslide victory.

Qanooni, who nearly derailed that election by alleging electoral fraud, continues to insist he won by 53 per cent. "I accepted the verdict then so that Afghanistan would not descend into anarchy again, because I did not want to cause bloodshed after clashes broke out between my supporters and Karzai's supporters in Herat where two people died."

But he warned that the methods of ensuring a victory for Karzai were in place for his supporters just as they were the last time. "We are not against elections but against the way elections are being conducted. The process of ballot box stuffing can only take place when the ballots are being moved from the voting booths to the counting centres. Who proposed the transfer of ballot boxes? Who manages the security of the boxes during the transfer? Under whose control are the boxes? It's the government. Even the JEMB [Joint Electoral Management Body] is run by government officials. It is not independent."

Against the single non-transferable vote system in place, he would have preferred proportional representation. He had submitted a seven-point proposal some six months ago which called among other things for such a system. "It was rejected," he said.

The former mujahideen commander, who wants a Justice Commission that looks into all complaints about candidates's antecedents defended the role of mujahideen in the troubled war-torn years saying they had nothing to be ashamed of as they had played a vital role in fighting the Taliban.

Discounting reports of divisions in the ranks of the former Northern Alliance, he said that former Defence Minister Marshall Fahim "fully backed" him. "We have been together for 25 years, we fought side by side," while Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah could not actively participate because he had responsibilities in government.

Qanooni, fast emerging as the central figure around whom the opposition is coalescing, said: "I don't believe we will get a majority, or that even the government-backed candidates will get a majority but my priority is to provide leadership in parliament. Let's not forget, this is Afghanistan, we know nothing about parliament. For 35 years we have not seen parliament. I will ask the government to let me train parliamentarians so that we can run the business of government."

Putting the finishing touches to a shadow government, Qanooni held a meeting on Sunday night with other members of his alliance.

While he skirted the touchy issue of whether his alliance would prioritise the key approval of the members of Karzai's cabinet when parliament convenes, he did say that the 30 days provided to the new parliament to pass Bills was not enough. "Our first order of business will be to ask for more time to discuss and debate important Bills. I believe there are 300 Bills in such a short time," said Qanooni.

Echoes of communist era as electioneering hots up - Pajhwok Afghan News

09/15/2005 By Abdul Majid Arif

KHOST CITY - Elections candidates - with communist orientation - are satisfied with their campaigning in this southeastern province, saying they have not yet run into snags. A number of residents, however, have railed against the candidature of the politicians who have been part of oppressive regimes.

At least two communist-era politicians from the Khost province, Syed Mohammad Gulab Zoi and Mohammad Naeem Himmat, are in the run for Sunday's legislative elections, in which 12.5 million registered Afghans will exercise their universal suffrage for the first time in more than three decades.
Running for a Wolesi Jirga (National Assembly) seat, Gulab Zoi had held ministerial slots in three communist regimes. He was communication minister in the Noor Mohammad Tarakai cabinet and interior minister in the Hafizullah Amin administration. Later, he served as Afghanistan's ambassador to Moscow during Dr. Najibullah's government.

Nauroz Usuli, a parliamentarian in the last pro-communist setup, is in the race for a berth on the Khost provincial council. Both, contented as they are, say their campaigns have been a smooth sailing.
Qader Gul Zadran, Gulab Zoi's campaign manager, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday: "Khost residents have been extremely supportive of us in the canvassing process. But it will be premature to predict the former minister's victory at the polls."

Provincial council contender Maulvi Naeem Himmat, who has printed Dr. Najib's portrait on his poster, which reads: "Watan Ya Kafan (homeland or shroud)." He observes his poster carries Dr. Najib's photo, as the late president continues to live in his heart.

"The moneyed class is exploiting the masses for personal ends, but we want to serve our people in a democratic environment in line with Dr. Najib's desire," continues the man, whose pamphlets have left analysts wondering as to how Naeem dared print Najib's portrait along with his.

Critics question the clearance of these candidates, who have been part and parcel of dictatorial administrations - widely censured for brazen oppression of people. "If allowed to have to way, I will put to torch the communist posters," reacts an irate local shopkeeper.

Speaking to this news agency, Salim Gul laments: "Six of my relatives were among tens of thousands of innocent Afghans massacred by communists. Pol-i-Goon on the outskirts of Kabul is witness to that barbarity."

By the same token, 45-year-old Tila Gul faults the government for allowing the communists to contest the vote. "Former interior minister Gulab Zoi, whose hands are stained with the blood of his compatriots, is also seeking votes from people."

Already tried and tested, stressed Rasul Gul, the communists did not deserve another chance to represent a nation they had let down.

A man who has shifted from Paktika to Khost, Sher Mohammad fears Najib's portraits on candidate posters might incite people to violence ahead of polling day.

Approached for comments, JEMB's regional member Sahib Shah denied receiving a formal complaint against the communists' candidacy. "If anyone objects to it, they should lodge complaints in writing. We will disqualify the contenders even after the polls if the complaints are found valid," he promised.

On the other hand, a number of people are backing Gulab Zoi and Naeem Himmat. Mohammad Nasim and Jamal Nasir insist there should be no hurdle to their participation in the polls now that they have abjured the politics of violence.

A glass half full - An opportunity wasted - The Economist - 09/15/2005 - As Afghanistan prepares to elect its first democratic parliament for almost 40 years, the country is doing better than many feared

Kabul – On the campaign trail this week, Mullah Qalamudeen, the former Taliban deputy-minister for vice and virtue, was warmly welcomed in Logar province, in Afghanistan's violent east. Seated on cheap Iranian carpets in open-air mosques, he presented his manifesto to huddles of bearded elders. It was strong on values (Islam and jihad); thin on policy. But Mr Qalamudeen pledged that if the Islamist clauses in Afghanistan's constitution are diluted as a consequence of the parliamentary and provincial elections due on September 18th, he will take up his Kalashnikov rifle in their defence.

Mr Qalamudeen is one of the more impressive of the 5,800 candidates contesting the polls: he is not promising Logar instant roads and schools, or blaming foreigners for all Afghanistan's troubles, and he can read. Nor, unlike one or two other prospective members of parliament, did he oversee the slaughter of several hundred thousand residents of Kabul in the civil war of the 1990s. Nor does he have a private army, unlike 207 would-be candidates, according to an estimate by the local and foreign agencies that are running the election.

Only 21 of those villains have been disqualified: the government of President Hamid Karzai excused all the rest. The electoral complaints commission fielded several thousand other objections to candidates which did not make them ineligible—including charges that they had committed appalling war crimes, and, from one sorry plaintiff, that a candidate had stolen his wife. One local warlord left in the race is Haji Almas, a well-built parliamentary hopeful for Parwan province, with plucked eyebrows and a gravelly voice, whose supporters allegedly mount illegal road-blocks and traffic in opium. "My name is well known across the country," boasts Mr Almas, as he promises to build national unity.

The same is hoped for the elections themselves, which were originally supposed to have been held at the same time as the presidential election a year ago that returned Mr Karzai to power. By imposing an important check on presidential power, and also drawing Afghanistan's poor regions into a centre that has done little for them in recent years, they are an important stage in a trail-blazing post-war reconstruction effort; in theory, at least.

The reality is murkier. Against the advice of most of the foreign donors keeping him afloat, Mr Karzai chose the unusual single non-transferable vote system, whereby the 12m registered voters select one name (or, for illiterates, the corresponding symbol) in huge multi-member constituencies. In Kabul, 400 candidates are vying for 33 seats and the ballot runs to seven tabloid-sized pages. Voters need to look through the whole lot before making their choice, and the top 33 get the seats. With studies suggesting that illiterate women did not know how to turn pages, mistakes were expected, and voting was thought likely to proceed at a crawl. In contrast to last year's election, Afghans may vote only in their registered polling station, a fact that seems to be little-known, and could prevent many from voting at all. So could violence in the south and east, where an insurgency by Taliban and other fanatics continues: on September 13th, seven men carrying voter registration cards were murdered on a road in Uruzgan.

All this could create an opportunity for mischief by Yunus Qanuni, champion of the Tajik minority and Mr Karzai's main opponent. After coming a distant second to Mr Karzai in last year's poll, Mr Qanuni at first refused to accept defeat—and in an interview this week still claimed to have won 53% of the vote. Now vying for a place in parliament, he let it be known that unless he and his friends win half the 249 available seats he will again cry foul.

Even if serious glitches can be averted, the election should at best put in parliament a fractious rabble, with shifting factions bound by ethnicity and stealthy allegiance to the best organised political parties, most of them formerly communist. Such a body would struggle to rule on the 200-odd decrees Mr Karzai has handed down since his election, within 30 days of meeting, as the constitution seems to say that it must. The provincial assemblies will be much weaker, with no control over presidentially appointed governors—to the dismay of their would-be members, who were told this only mid-way through campaigning. Elections for local assemblies, also overdue, will not be held; due in part to the insurgency, district boundaries have not been fully demarcated.

Under the guiding hand of America, Mr Karzai's strongest ally, the electoral system was clearly designed to maintain a strong presidency. It is a strategy that could fail: Mr Karzai may find swift ad hoc support for his diktats, or he could be forced to spend distracting months negotiating to get his way. Whichever comes to pass, it seems right to ask whether Mr Karzai, a mid-level Holy Warrior against the Soviet occupation, and then an opponent of the Taliban, who has ruled Afghanistan since 2001, deserves now to find himself in such a powerful presidency.

Last year's election gave Mr Karzai the legitimacy he had previously lacked, and the temporary freedom to rule unencumbered by parliament. Excited pro-reformers, led by the finance minister, Ashraf Ghani, urged him to seize the chance: issue a 180-day reform programme, rid himself of ineffective provincial governors and other officials and accelerate the centre's outward reach. Mr Karzai responded by sacking Mr Ghani, announcing no new reforms and carrying on as before: ruling through slow consultation with tribal elders and the ex-mujahideen commanders who waged civil war before the Taliban sent them packing. Under pressure to remove Gul Agha Sherzai, under whose watch southern Kandahar province increased opium production by 140% this year, Mr Karzai instead recently shifted him to eastern Nangahar province, which had cut opium production by 95%.

One presidential adviser, and parliamentary candidate, causing particular concern is a former Saudi Arabian-backed jihadist leader named Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch, a lobby group, he is "directly implicated in the abductions and the indiscriminate and intentional targeting of civilians". During the war against the Soviet army, together with Osama bin Laden, he founded training camps that sent Muslim fanatics to fight in Chechnya, Bosnia and the southern Philippines—where an Islamic terrorist movement, Abu Sayyaf, is named after him. In 1996, when Mr bin Laden was ejected from his base in Sudan, Mr Sayyaf invited him back to Afghanistan. Last week, at a meeting in the presidential palace in Kabul, Mr Karzai invited Mr Sayyaf to advise him whether to reappoint the heroic boss of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Mr Sayyaf advised against it.

In his defence, Mr Karzai could argue that he has had insufficient foreign help to take on the warlords. A NATO-led peacekeeping force, currently 11,000-strong, and known as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), keeps an eye on northern and western Afghanistan, from where most of the warlords hail. Yet, totalling a handful of small garrisons, and with most of its European troops forbidden by their national government to do aught more muscular than dig wells, it does little to assist with security.

ISAF played no role in the recent demobilising of 60,000 militiamen—many of whom are believed to have pocketed the UN's cash incentive and formed new bandit gangs. According to Major Luigi Mantoli, deputy chief of an Italian garrison in the western city of Herat: "Our military component is just for self-protection—it's a very, very light presence, a very, very, very light presence." True enough, Herat is currently peaceful. Yet a straw poll of Heratis milling outside the city's fine blue mosque suggested that security is their biggest concern.

According to Mr Karzai's logic, elections are no reason to risk civil strife. In defence of his caution, he can claim general progress. Last year, driven by wheat production, after decent rains ended years of drought, the economy grew by 13%. Government revenues are pathetically small—$350m last year, but growing too. Competent technocrats remain in charge of several key ministries, even if corruption beneath them is pervasive. The American-trained Afghan National Army is 30,000-strong, its desertion rates are dipping, and it provides useful support to the American-led coalition army that is fighting insurgents. And, moreover, several strongmen, notably Ismail Khan of Herat, and Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek from the north, have been co-opted into the government and so weakened.

Just so, reply Mr Karzai's critics—and their example should embolden the president. When sufficiently threatened, warlords have capitulated. Given that America and ISAF promised to take care of any troublesome disqualified candidates, the decision to disqualify so few armed men from standing for election seems an opportunity lost, especially given the rising uncertainty about how long Mr Karzai will be able to count on such assistance.

The elections probably do not amount to a genuine watershed in Afghanistan's creeping transition from abject dependency to, it is hoped, fragile self-sufficiency. Most Afghans have embraced them, but more in hope of benefits to come than jubilation at benefits received. In Pol-e-Khumri, a town in central Baghlan province, the menfolk of a destitute Pushtun family recently returned from exile in Pakistan said they would vote for any candidate who would bring them peace.

But peace is not all that the Afghans were promised in 2001. Of four road-building projects, barely one has been completed; work on the western stretch, from Kandahar to Herat, was frozen this month after Taliban assassins tossed a British engineer over a cliff to his death. The power sector is a shambles. Private investors remain discouraged by dozens of extraneous taxes, and now a corporate tax of 20% will be introduced after the election. Even with the requisite political will, because of a shortage of technical expertise, reforming the system will take years.

In the past four years, for aid and development, Afghanistan has received around $10 billion—about the annual cost of America's military venture there. Half has come from America but, unlike the contributions from Europe and Japan, the American aid comes without any long-term guarantees. There are fears in Kabul that, next year, America will not be so forthcoming.

That would not be in America's own interest, because its first job in Afghanistan, the suppression of al-Qaeda terrorists and the local fanatics who succoured them, is still not done. This year, 69 American soldiers have been killed by these enemies, the highest number since 2001; though the figure is swollen by two serious incidents, including the shooting down in June of a helicopter carrying American special force fighters, killing 16. An improvement in the guerrillas' bomb-making skills has suggested the arrival of help from Iraq's insurgents, but media talk of a "second front" emerging in Afghanistan is unfounded. American forces in Afghanistan admit to having killed 600 people since March, though given their propensity to kill from the air, the true number is probably considerably higher.

Grim as this sounds, America has improved its military tactics. Its regular soldiers are operating more like special forces, in smaller units, and in tandem with the eight battle-ready battalions of the Afghan army. At Mr Karzai's request, this year, restrictions have been placed on airstrikes and house searches, which has probably meant fewer civilians killed or riled. America can also expect some fresh help in its fight, with around 4,000 British and Canadian troops expected to be deployed to southern Afghanistan by early next year. Whether ISAF will take over the coalition's combat role, allowing American to withdraw several thousand troops from Afghanistan next year as it would like, remains in doubt. At a meeting of European defence ministers in Berlin on September 13th, Germany, France and Spain opposed giving NATO such extended duties.

Still, whether as NATO or as an American-led coalition, America and its allies will not be able to defeat the insurgents so long as their leaders are based not in Afghanistan but, as intelligence very strongly suggests, in next-door Pakistan. On September 12th, Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, suggested building a fence along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan to prevent all illegal incursions. It would surely be cheaper to start by arresting those Taliban leaders living contentedly, and relatively openly, in Pakistan's northern town of Quetta.

Rolling the dice for democracy - International Herald Tribune - 09/15/2005

By Karl Inderfurth

WASHINGTON The United Nations recently distributed 10,000 copies of a board game to Afghan boys and girls and their families called Road to Peace. It teaches young and old about key events in the peace process, beginning with the overthrow of the Taliban and the signing of the Bonn Agreement in December 2001. It also highlights some of the many steps of the reconstruction process to undo 23 years of war and destruction, from rebuilding education and health services to installing a functioning justice system.

The real-life version of that board game will be on display this Sunday, when Afghans go to the polls for the nationwide elections. Nearly 6,000 candidates, including 575 women, are competing for seats in the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of Parliament, and on 34 provincial councils. More than 12 million people have registered to vote - two million more than did for Afghanistan's first presidential election last October. Some 40 million ballots for the different elections are being distributed throughout the country.

If successful, these elections will mark the conclusion of the formal process, initiated with the Bonn Agreement, to map out Afghanistan's transition to a democratically elected government, including the adoption of a new constitution.

But, unfortunately, success in Afghanistan is not a sure thing. Violence has increased sharply in recent months, led by a resurgent Taliban movement. This year is already the deadliest for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since 2001, when the Taliban were overthrown. There are reports that Taliban elements are being joined by fighters from Pakistan, Central Asia and the Middle East and that a unit of Al Qaeda has arrived to share "new tactics they learned in Iraq."

To increase security for the elections, NATO sent 2,000 extra troops to reinforce its 8,000-strong International Security and Assistance Force. The separate U.S.-led coalition force has been strengthened, to 21,000. A large international presence will be needed in Afghanistan for the foreseeable future.

According to Ronald Neumann, the new U.S. ambassador in Kabul, "I think this is a [security] situation that will probably be difficult for some time."

Also critical for ensuring security for the election will be the role played by Afghanistan's neighbor, Pakistan. Strains have appeared in recent weeks between the two countries after Afghan officials charged that Taliban fighters were entering Afghanistan from Pakistan. Pakistan says it has deployed about 80,000 troops along the border to track down Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Both sides acknowledge that Pakistan's active cooperation helped prevent any serious disruption of Afghanistan's October presidential election. A similar effort by Pakistan is essential for Sunday's elections, as well as a continuing commitment by Islamabad to stop the flow of militants into Afghanistan in the months ahead.

With elections successfully completed - and a new National Assembly and provincial councils established - Afghans can turn their full attention to the remaining hurdles they face in rebuilding their country. A major focus must now be placed on the country's economic development, with strong support from the United States and the international community.

As a senior Afghan official correctly points out: "Without robust economic development that provides the jobs and opportunities needed to counter extremist recruitment and a burgeoning narcotics trade, the country faces the real danger that democracy and a free market economy will fail to take root."

With more than 6,300 polling stations and a very crowded ballot, counting will take some time. It is expected that provisional results for all elections will be declared by Oct. 9. Hopefully that will also signal several moves forward on the United Nations board game, Road to Peace.

(Karl F. Inderfurth, a professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, served as U.S. assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs from 1997 to 2001.)

It Is Almost as Good as Bozakashi - Asharq Alawsat 09/16/2005 By Amir Taheri

Until just a couple of years ago they hadn't either heard about it or regarded it as a luxury they could never afford. Having just discovered it they seem to love to bits.

This object of fascination in Afghanistan has a magic name: Intikhabat" (elections), a word that forced its way into the nation's political lexicon in 2002, much to the chagrin of the deposed Taliban mullahs who regarded it as "a Western abomination". Poets have written odes (qasidah) in its praise and village assemblies (jirgah) are buzzing with the talk of intikhabat. Even mosque preachers have jumped on the bandwagon and describe elections as "a gift from God."

To some Afghans the spectacle of men and women candidates fighting for votes is at least as good as that of "bozakashi", the nation's favourite sport in which horsemen try to snatch a sacrificial goat from one another.

Remember 2002 when self-appointed pundits in the West sneered at the thought of elections in Afghanistan. The Afghans, we were told, were nothing but human war-machines wearing beards or burqahs, and deserved nothing better than the beard-measuring and burqah-imposing mullahs and their terrorist allies.

With their first presidential election last year and their first free general election next Sunday the Afghans have already shown that, given a chance, they are more than willing to take the path of democratisation. The turnout in the presidential election, just over 55 per cent, is expected to be bettered by at least 10 per cent in the general election. (Voter registration is 18 per cent higher than last year.)

But it is not the physical aspects of the election- registration and voting- that matter most. What matters are the quality of the candidates and their discourse. And it is on those scores that Afghanistan's performance is encouraging. Much of the campaign debate has been of a surprisingly high quality, especially when dealing with bread-and-butter issues that interest the average citizen.

There seems to be a large measure of consensus on basic principles. Almost no one wants to return to the bad old days of the Taliban. A majority of candidates have called for a clear demarcation of religion from politics. The most prevalent view on economic policy is that Afghanistan needs a market-based system which would mean the dismantling of the centralized decision-making set up under the monarchy and continued under the Communists and the Taliban. Such newly asserted values as respect for human rights, a better status for women, and tolerance of cultural diversity have been vigorously defended by many candidates.

Some of those in the West who wanted Afghanistan to fail in order to get at the United States and/or George W Bush had predicted that elections there would sharpen ethnic divisions and lead to civil war. ( The same argument is used by the same people in the case of Iraq.) That, however, has not happened. Almost no one is appealing for votes on sectarian grounds.

More interestingly, an opposition alliance of 14 parties, drawing support from most major ethnic communities, appears to be heading for an impressive performance on Sunday. Fears that some communities may seek secession or special favours that no central government can offer have proved groundless.

Those in the West who opposed the liberation of Afghanistan also claimed that elections would translate into a victory for Islamist parties. But that is not going to happen either. In fact, no major group in this election is standing on an Islamist platform.

Some Islamist figures of the anti-Soviet war era have redesigned themselves as democratic politicians and are seeking votes with secular themes. Are they playing a game of deception? Perhaps. But even if they are, this would be a case of vice paying compliment to virtue. In any case, if anecdotal evidence and rudimentary polls are right even the most moderate Islamists are unlikely to go very far this time.

Those nostalgic for Mullah Muhammad Omar also claimed that elections in Afghanistan would be dominated by "the warlords". The term " warlord" has been used to vilify many Afghan leaders whose sole fault was to have fought the Soviet occupation and driven the Communist out of Kabul at the end of the Cold War.

But many of these so-called "warlords" had been ordinary citizens, doctors, engineers, businessmen and students who had taken up arms to fight the Moscow-backed Communist regime. Not all are beyond reproach and, in some cases, it is vital that the next elected government investigates all charges against them. But most have managed to return to civilian life and seem to be accepted as leaders of their constituencies.

Despite the current encouraging picture, Afghanistan's new democracy remains vulnerable. To start with the terrorist groups, including Taliban, remain active in at least four provinces in the southeast and the west. It is clear that these groups benefit from at least tacit support from either Iran or Pakistan. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his private army would not be able to continue hit-and-run attacks against Afghan villages without having fall-back positions inside the border with Iran. And as far as the Taliban are concerned it is no mystery that Islamabad, while sincere in its crackdown against " Arab Afghans", is less so when it comes to Pushtun terrorists from Pakistan or Afghanistan.

The new Afghan army and police force are in their infancy and would need between three and five years before they can ensure the nation's security. In the meantime the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) is still unable or unwilling to commit itself to protecting the nascent Afghan democracy against its terrorist enemies and their backers in the region. NATO's 11000 soldiers kept as a largely symbolic presence in Kabul while the United States' task force of 20000 men is almost exclusively focused on hunting down the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Another danger to Afghanistan's new democracy is President Hamid Karzai's attempts at strengthening the executive branch of the government at the expense of the legislative. Adopting the presidential system, inspired by the American model, may have been a wise choice in the immediate aftermath of liberation. But the American system also provides for the separation of powers under which a strong Congress and an independent Supreme Court keep the presidency in check.

That, however, has not happened in Afghanistan. The central government, which in effect means the president and his entourage, have accumulated immense powers by controlling the all-important flow of aid while enjoying uncritical support from Washington.

The United States should use its influence to encourage the devolution of more powers to the National Assembly elected this weekend. Afghanistan is a nation of minorities with 18 communities speaking six different languages and following three different versions of Islam. Each community is in turn divided into numerous tribes and clans.

Most Afghans like to see themselves as so many streams flowing into a big river that is Afghanistan. That image can acquire some reality only through democratic power-sharing. And that means greater powers for the parliament and elected local authorities. Otherwise the streams may well stop flowing in the same direction.

In remote Afghanistan, hopes for progress from vote - AFP

The villages in Afghanistan's remote eastern province of Nuristan cling to the narrow ledges and fertile slopes of the Hindu Kush. And their inhabitants cling to the hope that Sunday's parliamentary and provincial council elections will bring them out of the past and into the 21st century.

Nuristan, a mountainous province almost 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the Afghan capital, is so isolated that its inhabitants were not converted to Islam until almost 1900, and it remains extremely underdeveloped. "Much money is given to Afghanistan but Nuristan does not collect a crumb of it", provincial governor Mohammed Tamim Nuristani told AFP.

He lists the province's massive humanitarian problems in sectors ranging from substandard health and nutrition to poverty, unemployment and poor infrastructure.

But he said because the province is not a center for major warlords or Al-Qaeda -- whose leader Osama bin Laden was sheltered by the Taliban regime here before their downfall in 2001 -- it falls under the radar for development. "We do not have a hospital," he said. "Only 20 of our 152 schools have a building."

Afghanistan's ministry for rural development and some aid agencies have built a handful of roads, wells and irrigation projects, but the needs remain glaring, with alarming figures for infant and maternal mortality.

Once the 249-seat parliament is convened, only two seats will be reserved for Nuristan, but local elders still hope the elections will give them a chance to voice their grievances.

"We are a minority, without representatives in Kabul, and nobody hears our voice," said 78-year-old Hadji Din Mohammed, chief of the tribal council of the village of Waygal, wedged between a mountain river and two steep slopes.

Sunday's poll will elect a parliament to decide on the national legislature and provincial councils whose exact function is yet unclear. Many of the 800,000 to one million inhabitants of Nuristan are enthusiastic about the election, officials say. "People here await the elections with much impatience," provincial police chief Abdul Baqi said.

Despite Nuristan's conservative form of Islam -- many hardline Saudi Wahhabis moved here during the war against the Soviets in the 1980s and married into the community -- even the local clerics are enthusiastic about the internationally sponsored polls.

"Without the elections, nothing will be done. With the parliament, the projects will advance, and the standard of living will improve," said 35-year-old Ghulam Qader, who preaches at the Waygal mosque.
Despite the enthusiasm, the mountains, remote location and security fears may compromise participation in the vote. In July, suspected Taliban militants shot and wounded a woman registering voters in the restive district of Kamdesh, which borders Pakistan.

Less than a week later, 80 armed men surrounded the house of an electoral worker. The militants kidnapped two electoral workers and another man, later releasing them but stealing a large quantity of electoral registration materials.

Nevertheless, Doctor Khalil, a member of the electoral commission in Parun, Nuristan's tiny capital, said around 140,000 people or 70 percent of eligible voters had registered.

In areas that are "only accessible by donkey and horse," it had however been hard to reach some people, he said.

During last October's presidential elections, only "40 to 50 percent of people voted, many having been blocked by the strong rains and snowfalls", said 55-year-old Din Mohammed, governor of the district of Want.

He said villagers wanted to do better this year but feared there were not enough polling stations. "Last year, there were nine of them in the district but we really need 26," he said.

The problem is all the more crucial because women in the conservative province do not go to other villages, which are sometimes several hours' or a day's walk away, he said.

Want's district police chief Hadji Mohammed Ibrahim estimated that "only half of the men will authorize their wife to vote," even though local mullahs declared themselves in favour of the female vote.

Candidates in Afghanistan Election Meet – AP September 15

As a teen, Abdul Qodos fought Soviet forces in this town on the sun-baked plains northeast of Kabul. Now he's here for an experiment in democracy, one of hundreds of elders and community leaders who came to hear candidates running in Afghanistan's landmark legislative elections.

From across Kapisa province, they streamed into a former movie house ringed by rocky mountain slopes. Their mission: listen, ask questions, then go home to advise people how to vote Sunday in what is seen as a key step toward stability after 25 years of conflict.

"I want to see who is good. I want to hear what the candidates say," Qodos said. As candidates gathered on the stage Wednesday, boys in white vests moved along the aisles, pouring water for rows of men in brown felt hats, white skullcaps and turbans. Women sat in the back, the hoods of their blue burqas thrown back to expose their faces.

The meeting was organized by Kapisa Governor Satar Murad as part of government efforts to assure people the elections will be free and fair and that they can vote for whomever they choose without pressure from warlords who still wield strong influence.

"People are tired," said Qodos, 37, who said he commanded a small group that battled the Taliban after fighting against the Soviets. "We do not want any more war."

But tensions boiled to the surface when critics of one candidate, Abdul Hadi, alleged he had led Taliban fighters and accused him of killings and other crimes.

Hadi stormed out with several followers in tow. Tense shouting matches erupted outside before he agreed to return, underlining the challenge in breaking with Afghanistan's turbulent past and building democracy.

Human rights activists say some warlords involved in the bloodshed of the past quarter-century have slipped through a U.N.-backed review to become candidates and fear their participation in the vote could undermine its goals.

There are also concerns that the elections of a national parliament and 34 provincial assemblies may simply cement existing rifts in society, with voters casting ballots along traditional ethnic, tribal and religious lines rather than for specific policies.

"It is quite likely that communities will vote for people they know and for traditional leaders," said Trevor Martin, head of office for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan for the country's central region.

"It's important that a political process take place, so that candidates or parties can begin to develop political agendas that can be expressed and debated," he told The Associated Press. "Clearly it will take some time to achieve this."

Martin also said recent history has made many Afghans mistrustful of politicians. That was reflected in the largely respectful but sometimes raucous exchanges between candidates and the audience on an array of key issues _ women's rights, foreign policy, a persistent Taliban insurgency and the presence of U.S. and NATO forces.

One questioner wanted to know what a parliament is _ sparking a lengthy response from a professor who is seeking a seat. A white-bearded elder drew some of the loudest applause when he told another candidate that if elected, he must work for the people, provide health care and build schools, and not just "eat and make your stomach big."

Afghan candidates play down Taliban past - The New York Times, 09/16/2005

By Somini Sengupta

KANDAHAR - For a man so seemingly intent on turning back time, there could be no better symbol than the one that Maulvi Qalamuddin had chosen for his campaign for Parliament: the clock.

Once, as the head of the Taliban's Department for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, Qalamuddin, a Muslim cleric by profession, was the notorious face of Taliban-era moral policing: It was his men who cruised through town ordering the floggings of women who did not cover themselves from head to toe, or the floggings of men who dared shave their beards.

Now, in his quest to represent his home province of Logar in the parliamentary elections Sunday, Qalamuddin's appeals to voters contain hardly a word about the Taliban. He opts instead to rewind a few years to an earlier vocation, as a "mujahedeen" warrior fighting to oust the Soviet invaders from his country. Asked about his Taliban links, he prefers to describe himself as a member of one of several anti-Soviet factions that joined the old regime.

This is how he appealed to a gathering of men under a tent the other day: "You who now have white beards, you were once young, good jihadis," Qalamuddin, a cleric by vocation, said. "When you are voting for someone, look at him - judge his background, ask where was he during the jihad, was a good man or a bad man."

Afghan voters on Sunday may indeed be asking some of those questions of the handful of former Taliban ministers and military commanders who have thrown their turbans into the electoral ring, even as their former brothers-in-arms carry on a bruising insurgency against the American-backed government of President Hamid Karzai.

They are a storied bunch, and they are mostly from the south. At least two prominent Taliban commanders are running for Parliament: Rais Baghrani, from Helmand Province, just west of here, and Abdul Salaam Rocketi, thus named for his rocket-firing skills, from Zabul, to the east. Ahmed Mutawakil, the former Taliban foreign minister, is running for Parliament from this southern province.

There also is Haji Abdul Samat Khaksar, the Taliban's onetime intelligence minister, subsequently demoted to deputy interior minister and now also vying to represent Kandahar in Parliament. Khaksar's campaign manifesto includes ridding the country of narcotics and respecting human rights. His campaign symbol looks like a pasta bowl, he says his Taliban credentials are entirely irrelevant to his campaign.

"My people are important to me, to represent them in Parliament," he said in an interview here this week. "Now the name of the Taliban or any other party is not important. We should not divide our country by political parties, languages, or ethnic groups."

Still, he said, suspected Taliban fighters had been threatening him on the phone. What infuriated him even more was the refusal of election officials to give him the two AK-47s he had requested for his security.

By law, no one is allowed to campaign with arms. In practice, Khaksar groused, many do. "The government is helping the candidates they want for Parliament, and they're not helping me," he cried. "Are we not human?"

Qalamuddin, too, was not eager to be reminded of his Taliban days. In an interview at his village home the other day, he took pains to distance himself from what he called the excesses of young Taliban fighters in enforcing the vice and virtue laws of the regime. He had only wanted to persuade people to take the correct moral path of Islam, he said. He did not wish to inflict harsh punishment. "I was not the one putting people in prison," he said.

It is a good thing his campaign symbol, a necessity for illiterate voters who cannot read a candidate's name on a ballot, turned out not to be a television or a kite. During his tenure, the vice and virtue agency ordered television sets to be smashed and prohibited kite-flying, on the grounds that they were un-Islamic.

At the time, Qalamuddin had praised the 1996 public stoning of two adulterers beside a mosque in Kandahar as among the regime's most effective measures. "Just two people, that's all, and we ended adultery in Kandahar forever," he had said in an interview published in The New York Times in August 1997. "Even 100,000 police could not have the effect that we achieved with one punishment of this kind."

He was keen to point out that some of the Taliban's most infamous decrees, including the stoning of Afghan citizens and the destruction of the historic Buddha statues at Bamiyan, were judgments issued by the courts, not him.

Qalamuddin was arrested by Afghan security forces in April 2003, but was released after intervention from his tribe.

Today, he urged Taliban gunmen to join the government. "I can go to Parliament, solve my people's problems, work for my people and stop the fighting in this country," he said.

Young and female - a brave new face of Afghan politics - The Guardian, UK

09/16/2005 By Declan Walsh in Kabul

Among the stony-faced mugshots on posters plastered across election-crazed Kabul, one stands out. At first glance it looks like an ad for a Bollywood blockbuster: a close-up of a pretty young woman with an alluring smile against a canary yellow background.

But this is the face of Sabrina Sagheb, the youngest candidate in tomorrow's landmark parliamentary elections, who has created a stir across Kabul with her splashy campaign and outspoken views. "If elected I will face up to the old men with guns that destroyed our country," said the 25-year-old development worker on the final day of campaigning. "Now it is our turn to fight with them."

It is a tough battle. Tomorrow's vote is beset with perils.

Yesterday gunmen dragged candidate Abdul Hadi from his house in Helmand province and killed him, the sixth candidate to die. The Taliban have warned voters to boycott the poll to avoid getting caught in fresh attacks.

Meanwhile Hawa Alam Nuristani, a television presenter turned candidate, was being treated in an American military hospital yesterday after gunmen in Nuristan province dragged her from her car and shot her three times in the legs.

But the poll has also fired the imagination of young Afghans, who see politics as a way to wrench power away from the big men of violence. "The politicians we supported before have betrayed us. They start wars, put our money in their pockets and do nothing for the young," said Reza Hashimi, a 20-year-old carpet weaver.

Sagheb, with her lipstick, fluent English and matching Nike trainers and headscarf, represents a new optimism and sophistication. She has injected a new ingredient into Afghan politics: sex appeal. Her glamorous poster has become an object of desire in Kabul, rivalling only that of Bollywood siren Aishwarya Rai on shops, taxi windows and bedroom walls.

Of the 10,000 copies her supporters have distributed few remain on the city's walls. Most have been torn down to be put up again in private homes or traded in the city bazaar. "If I put a poster on a wall today, tomorrow it is gone," she sighed as she juggled phone calls, media interviews and visitors at her city centre office.

Across the room Muhammad Naseen, 20, sat alongside a dozen other young men waiting on plastic chairs for a chance to chat with the candidate and, ever so politely, beg a copy of the coveted poster. "Sabrina is young and so are we," he explained with a coy smile. "We have already voted in a lot of men. Now it is time for change."

Sagheb admits not all admirers may vote for her but she is confident she can win one of Kabul's nine reserved seats. More than 500 women are competing for 68 places in the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament. She needs courage as well as votes. Men traditionally discourage women from seeking attention - four years after the Taliban, burkas are common in Kabul - and the conservative press has targeted Sagheb.

"Her posters are driving our youth towards sin," thundered the Dari language Cheragh newspaper. "It is a political weapon against true Islamic voters." Other candidates have been more viciously attacked.
The final weeks of campaigning saw a string of attacks on women, according to human rights groups. Candidates in Ghazni, south of Kabul, say they have received threatening "night letters" from the Taliban.

The intimidation is part of a wider problem of warlordism in tomorrow's election: although 210 candidates have private armies at their disposal, just 32 were disqualified. The failure to separate guns from politics has created an "underlying climate of fear", especially in rural areas, according to Human Rights Watch.

But despite the vote's flaws, enthusiasm for democracy remains high. Sagheb is undeterred by threats. She once received a call from a man demanding she follow "Islamic rules" said her mother, Nadia. "Sabrina told him that if he wasn't happy, he didn't have to vote for her."

Afghanistan's telecom sector attracts highest bid - Pajhwok Afghan News 09/15/2005

KABUL - Afghanistan's telecom sector is set to attract a record $80,200,000 investment from two companies Investcom Consortium and Watan Mobile, who emerged successful bidders on Thursday.

The bids were opened at a press conference during which Investcom Consortium with a total bid of $40,100,000 was announced as the first winner followed by Watan Mobile Afghanistan with its $30,030,000 bid. The two companies will launch service in the next four months.

According to the set procedure, Watan will be awarded the licence after providing a written confirmation. At present two Afghan companies, AWCC and Roshan are providing services across the country.

The Investcom bid is the highest amount attracted by the private sector in the history of Afghanistan. Earlier, seven parties had filed applications of which five submitted their bids as two were disqualified for not fulfilling the criteria.

Jamal Ramadan, head of the Investcom, told Pajhwok Afghan News they would launch service by using the latest technology. He added: "We will provide better services to the Afghan people because the company has ample experience and expertise in that sector."

Ahmad Ratib Popal, head of Watan Telecom Company, said they would try to provide better facilities to the consumers.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Telecommunication Amirzai Sangin expressed satisfaction over the successful bidding. He said as peace and stability were taking roots in the country, more and more investment would pour in.

He said the launching of the two new services would create competition among those companies for providing better and cheaper services to the consumers. Presently, there are about 800,000 mobile consumers.

Tajiks 'ready to help' U.S. when Uzbek base closes - By Michael Steen - Sep 16

DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajikistan could host some U.S. military equipment and personnel forced to leave an airbase in Uzbekistan, a senior member of President Imomali Rakhmonov's political party said on Friday.

Following U.S. criticism of the bloody suppression of a rebellion in the Uzbek town of Andizhan in May, Uzbekistan gave Washington six months to leave the airbase which it has used to support operations in neighbouring Afghanistan since late 2001.

The United States has not said whether it is seeking a replacement for the base, known as Karshi-Khanabad or K2, but it leaves U.S. forces in Afghanistan reliant on a smaller base at Kyrgyzstan's civilian airport and bases inside Afghanistan.

"We were members of the anti-terrorist coalition right from the start," Davlatali Davlatov, First Deputy Chairman of Rakhmonov's ruling People's Democratic Party, told Reuters.

"Our position has not changed. We always say yes," he said. "We cooperate closely with the United States, irrespective of the political situation and, unlike other neighbours, we have never chopped and changed."

However, he added, any help would have to be within Tajikistan's capabilities. "To move all of Khanabad here, where would you put it?" he said. The Tajik government, which already hosts French military aviation at its airport, has not publicly commented.

A Western diplomat in the Tajik capital Dushanbe said he believed Washington had not yet made a decision on whether to seek assistance from Tajikistan, an impoverished former Soviet republic that shares a long border with Afghanistan.

"My impression is that there's not going to be an establishment of a new full-fledged base anywhere in Central Asia," the diplomat said.

"There may be elements of what was happening at that base that may be moved to other places but I am absolutely certain that no final decision has been taken about that yet."

Russia, despite lending its support to the establishment of the U.S. bases in Central Asia after the September 11, 2001 attacks, has shown increasing hostility to the U.S. presence in a region rich in oil and gas resources that it has historically viewed as its sphere of influence.

It has established its own military airbase in Kyrgyzstan and last year won approval to keep its 6,000 troop-strong 201st Division at a permanent base in Tajikistan.

Along with China and four Central Asian states including Tajikistan, Russia issued a statement in July calling on the United States to name a date for its military's departure from the region, citing the end of major combat in Afghanistan.

Davlatov said Russian opposition to any U.S. presence in Tajikistan was "not important." But Moscow last year offered to invest $2 billion in the country's economy and annually hosts hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Tajikistan, whose remittances are crucial to a fragile economy still recovering from civil war in 1992-97.

"If Tajikistan got too far out of line with Russian policy desires then they could begin to turn the screws and say okay we're going to send these men home, what are you going to do with them?" the Western diplomat said.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]