By Dave Anderson:
Ahh, legitimacy throught the electoral process. Voters have to be able to vote, have the ability to make informed choices, and have trust that their votes will be fairly tallied. The United Nations and the Afghan electoral commission have severe doubts about the last one. The UK Times reports on the amazing and convienent observed 'ineffeciency' of Afghan electoral workers if we are to assume a fair vote:
At 8am, an hour after the Afghanistan�s presidential polls opened, the polling station at the Haji Janat Gul High School, a dusty collection half-finished buildings designated for use by Kuchi nomads, was entirely empty of voters.
But the polling station in Pul-e-Charki painted a suspiciously different picture. In total 5,530 votes had already been cast for the Presidential Elections, according to the records being kept by the election staff beside each ballot box. In each box there were an oddly uniform 500 to 510 votes. More impressive still, some 3,025 of the ballots were women�s votes. Assuming that the last voter disappeared at least two minutes before the Times arrived at 7.55am, the staff working on the 12 separate ballot boxes at the site must have been processing at least 100 voters per minute since polling began.
Suddenly a lorry chugged into view. �Look there are voters!� shouted Lawan Geen, scampering towards the approaching vehicle. About thirty men were helped off the lorry, several were elderly and one was almost entirely blind. They trooped into the polling station and prepared to vote.
As the thirty voters each made their way to the ballot box it became evident that the staff were able to process a maximum four voters every three minutes, or at best 80 voters per ballot box per hour, or 960 for the entire polling centre per hour. How was it possible then to process 5,530 in an hour....
Strike one.
The New York Times reports on strike two in southwestern Afghanistan:
The Marines have just enough forces to clear out small pockets like Khan Neshin. And despite the Americans� presence, Afghan officials said 290 people voted here last week at what is the only polling place in a region the size of Connecticut. Some officers were stunned even that many voted....
Wahoo Democracy, whisky and sexy are back --- we just have to ignore the prima facie case of massive fraud and the effective disenfranchisement of vast swaths of the population because the fiction of a national and effective Afghan government can not provide voter stations for vast swaths of its territory or population much less provide effective security.
What is the mission again? That may be a problem as Andrew Exum illustrates the strategic confusion:
As one career public servant explained to me afterwards, "It's not like we do not support the war in Afghanistan -- it's just that no one has explained what we're doing there."
It's definately not picking up the "American's burden" of democracy promotion by any non-perverted reading of that word and concept.
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