(Thumbnail Image: U.S. Army / Facebook)

BY: ADNAN KHAN

“Violence, fraud allegations, low turn outs. Afghan elections were fraught with obstacles. Yet it seems nearly 4 million people braved the odds to cast their vote. But is the election credible and do the Afghanistan people believe in democracy?” (Al Jazeera)

Some are calling Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections a great success. Others are calling the optimistic reports -- fraudulent themselves.

We are analyzing news from Foreign Policy, BBC, CTV, PBS and Geo-TV.

Foreign Policy’s The AFPAK Channel takes the optimistic view of this election, saying violence was down 37 percent compared to the last presidential election.

“True, upwards of twenty people were abducted beforehand, and a few election workers got killed, and 63 polling stations were attacked with rockets ... and there was at least one suicide bomber. And there was, of course, widespread fraud. But it could have been a lot worse.”


BBC interviewed the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, who praised the Afghanistan security forces but is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about how the elections are going to play out.

“First of all, the most important judge of this election is the people of Afghanistan. If the people of Afghanistan look at this election and they believe it’s a step forward, that’s the critical test.  And frankly, for the international community, for the American people, I think that is what we are looking forward to now is what is the Afghan perception and judgment of this election.”

But CTV says the success of the security forces might not be as accurate as some say --  suggesting the turnout for the election could have been better.

“Nobody was expecting this to be a fair vote. Actually far from it. In an election where even before polling takes place, the election commission is already saying that over a thousand polling centers are shut down because of insecurity — that speaks a lot about the outcome of thise vote and the way this process is unfolding.”

A columnist for PBS says even with reports of the election being plagued by only half as much violence as last year, the spread of corruption and vote rigging seemed to have doubled. He also says a large number of these fraudulent acts were being committed by women.

“Because they are rarely searched by male election workers, women were caught smuggling thousands of voting cards into voting booths.”

Russia Today went so far as to say the elections were an absolute failure.

“Well by and large this was certainly not a successful day for Afghan democracy. There was an extremely low voter turnout. Some polling stations reported that less then a quarter number of people turned out today compared to the number of people casting their ballot compared to last years Presidential elections.”

Regardless of the corruption-ridden nature of Afghanistan’s politics, its people remain optimistic about the country’s future. Geo TV interviewed an Afghan engineer who moved to Dubai for work. Geo says he prays everyday for his country.

“If they stay strong. It’s looking good, you know, and also Allah has always mentions that every hardship, there is, you know, something good that comes out of it. So hopefully if we stay patient and if we stay focused, you know, we could pass through these tough times.”

So what do you think? Were the elections free and fair? Or is corruption surrounding the election of Afghanistan’s government an impediment to a free society?