The democratic transition is perhaps the most celebrated phenomenon in the history of Afghanistan. As the new president, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, takes oath in the presence of over 1,400 national and international guests, the war-torn country enters a new era which was long awaited. Democracy to Afghanistan has come at a huge cost. Many lives have been lost as the country worked towards establishing it's own unique system of representation. But even as the country ushers in a new democratic chapter, the run-up to the transition has thrown up several uncomfortable questions for the local authorities and the international community.
The 'everyone's-a-winner' arrangement only undermines the massive democratic process that was undertaken by the people of Afghanistan. The secret back room 'political agreement' for power sharing, acceptable to both the candidates, only raises questions about the purpose of conducting a mammoth election of this nature. While many would say this is a political solution to a current problem, the actual question is whether two individuals with different goals can share power in the first place. How long would this arrangement work? The signs of incompatibility showed up even a day before the two took the oath with the runner-up, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, threatening to boycott the inauguration on the ground that results of the vote should not be revealed publicly.
Around 8 million people participated in the historical process to elect their own representative. After the second round of elections, presidential candidate Dr Abdullah Abdullah alleged that the process was poisoned with undetectable fraud. Following US intervention, both candidates agreed upon auditing every ballot in the presence of international observers. This task meant going through around 23,000 ballot boxes -- an arduous task for an ill-equipped election commission. The two member IEC officials manning each table spread across 5 warehouses worked for over months to make whatever was possible today. Most of the officials were working on a part-time basis and on low salaries. But most of them painstakingly worked day in day out. It was evident that they were politically conscious -- something that is crucial for any democracy. Despite all the shortcomings, at least attempts were being made by the officials to remain neutral even though things changed at the fag end of the audit process when the officials were fatigued.
24-year-old Rafiullah Rahmani was one of the IEC members who took up the auditing process as a part-time job. Much to his liking, the Nooristani lad sat through the entire process, separating the ballots from every province to identify the fraud. While carrying out his daily task, he would often sing Bollywood songs to break the monotony. While he shudders to remember the days of Taliban, he firmly believes that a stable government would be the only way to keep the terror group at bay.
Known to be a country dangerous for women, it was heart-warming to see young women participate in the audit process. Large number of tables were being handled by young women who were quite aware of the audit process. Despite the imminent threats, the determined women performed their duties on a daily basis.
The participation of international observers certainly added more value to the entire process. The presence of international observers certainly prevented few IEC officials from indulging in malpractices. The domestic observers, too, were certainly far better equipped than previous elections. Many of the observers in the beginning of the audit were very vigilant. This reflected in the preliminary reports prepared by few of the domestic observation groups.
However, what is clear is that one of the problems of the audit - its slowness - has at the same time been both solved and exacerbated. This - solving a problem by stumbling upon a new one - unfortunately came across as a pattern in the entire process. Time and again, audit procedures have been changed as per the demands of the candidate. The design of the audit has been strongly shaped by disputes between the two candidates, particularly those over the audit criteria. When the audit process began, one of the main contentious issues was similarly marked ballots (SMBs). At least 20 SMBs were required for a recount, but this criteria was changed along the way, and the number was brought down to 10 SMBs. These disputes tend to be dealt with by temporary circumvention and delay, rather than actually resolving them.
The audit procedure clearly wasn't exhaustive enough. As the process was underway, several situations made the IEC officials go tizzy. For instance, several boxes had ballot papers from different polling stations but the same centre. After a long time, the IEC officials decided to prepare different result sheets for different polling stations. This, however, created a problem for the intake section, where the system was designed to encode data only once for every box, with not more than one result sheet for each box. This clearly goes on to show that the system in the intake section wasn't designed for such cases. This also indicates the shortsightedness of the authorities.
Very little importance has been accorded to the basics of elections: the voter log. Even though the country has a fluid voter log, the audit process did not give enough importance to anomalies in the voter list. It was considered as just another item in the box. While it did find a mention in the audit procedure as one of the triggers for recount, IEC officials as well as candidate agents were not trained enough to spot mistakes in the voter list. Also, the procedures did not elaborate on the possible fraud in the voter list.
Conducting the audit process in the absence of candidate agents clearly defeats the very purpose of this audit. The idea of the audit process was to satisfy both candidates that a fair result was the final objective. With a large number of boxes being audited in the absence of candidate agents, the process yields more questions than answers. At the last stage, result sheets/checklist going missing certainly raises some very uncomfortable questions. Something that the IEC officials and UN will have to answer to all stakeholders. Despite having an electronic system in place which has all the polling station numbers entered, IEC officials still haven't been able to establish the provinces of the missing result sheet.
This entire process has highlighted the shortcomings in the system. There is no doubt that the standoff between the two presidential candidates indicated a lack of faith in the institutions. A strong democratic system can only come into place when institutions are formidable. An election cannot be carried out when allegations of fraud are being leveled against the very people who are responsible for conducting them. While there is no doubt that the challenges faced by this country is insurmountable, a beginning towards building credible election institutions should be made. Only when the election commission commands respect, will the people have faith in the system. Despite the tough conditions, a large number of people have reposed their faith in this system and the new government should not let them down by creating a toothless election institution.
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