Low turnout predicted in landmark Afghan elections

As heavily guarded convoys hauled ballots from landmark legislative elections across Afghanistan’s rugged terrain today, evidence that turnout was sharply lower than in last year’s presidential vote undermined celebrations of the polling as a key step toward stability.

Afghan and international officials hailed yesterday’s elections as a major success, but chief electoral officer Peter Erben said turnout appeared to be just over 50 percent, based on reports from about one-third of the polling stations.

Barring a big increase, this would be significantly lower than the 70% for Hamid Karzai’s victory in last October’s euphoric presidential election. More than 8 million people voted then, even though the number of registered voters was lower than the 12.4 million eligible to cast ballots for the first new legislature in more than three decades.

No matter what the turnout, many voters were enthusiastic. That pleased the government and its Western backers, who hailed the elections as a show of determination to entrench democracy and defiance in the face of Taliban threats.

“Afghanistan should be satisfied with the turnout in yesterday’s election,” said Erben, chief electoral officer of the joint Afghan-UN body that conducted the vote. He said it compared well with elections in other post-war countries and joined Western observers in saying there was no evidence of major irregularities.

In a preliminary report, a European Union observer mission gave the polls a positive review but said vote secrecy was not always maintained. It said shortcomings during the campaign included intimidation, intervention by officials, inadequate voter lists and “deplorable” killings of candidates and election workers.

US President George Bush congratulated the Afghan people “for showing up at the polls and defying the Taliban and those who threaten their lives.”

“It’s just another step on their road toward a stable democracy, and we congratulate them,” he said.

Karzai has praised voters for coming out “in spite of the terrorism, in spite of the threats.”

Taliban rebels had urged Afghans to boycott the election – the last formal step toward democracy under an internationally sponsored plan laid out after the ouster of the hard-line Islamic group by US-led forces in 2001.

The death toll from rebel violence over the past six months is more than 1,200.

With tens of thousands of Afghan and foreign forces providing security, 15 people died in a variety of clashes and attacks. But officials said no one was killed in attacks near polling stations – although three voters were injured - and only 16 of some 6,270 polling stations failed to open because of security threats or logistical problems.

“The extremist elements that once again attempted to disrupt the electoral process have failed,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

The turnout projection confirmed that voters were fearful of Taliban attacks and concerned about the presence on the ballots of influential warlords responsible for past violence. Many Afghans distrust politicians they blame for plunging the country into chaos and aren’t convinced they can drag it out of poverty and pain.

Abdul Satar, a 50-year-old shopkeeper in Kabul, said he went to a polling place but marked his ballots with an X as a protest vote.

“Four hundred pictures, 400 candidates – warlords, illiterates, communists, Taliban,” Satar said. “How can I believe these people will serve the country?”

With prominent figures from Afghanistan’s shattered past on the ballots, some fear parliament could be split along the same lines that fuelled decades of conflict.

Security was tight as workers brought ballot papers from far-flung polling stations to provincial capitals, using trucks, helicopters – even donkeys, horses and camels. But election officials reported no major incidents.

Counting was to start Tuesday, with complete provisional results from the voting for parliament and 34 provincial councils expected by early October. Officials hope to have certified results by October 22, after a complaint period.