National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel)

NAMFREL participated as election observers in the September 18 Wolesi Jirga (parliamentary) elections in Afghanistan. Senior Operations Associate Paolo B. Maligaya, and Bantay ng Bayan coordinator Kristine Marie D. Tapiz, were deployed as long-term observers in Balkh province and Kapisa province, respectively, as members of the just-concluded observation mission of the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL). Meanwhile, NAMFREL National Council member and former Executive Director Telibert C. Laoc, is the mission coordinator of the National Democratic Institute (NDI)’s ongoing election observation mission in Afghanistan.

The 2010 Wolesi Jirga election was the fourth time ANFREL has observed in Afghanistan, first during the 2004 parliamentary elections, then the 2005 presidential elections, and after that last year’s presidential election. For this year’s election, ANFREL deployed 30 volunteers from 11 Asian countries to Central, North, and Northeast Afghan provinces to observe the pre-election, election day, and post-election periods.

Afghanistan’s security situation remained the biggest concern of all international personnel, particularly around the time of the election, severely restricting movement, and even affected schedules, including ANFREL’s. The situation was exacerbated by Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s decree giving ultimatum on the presence of private security personnel in Afghanistan. International organizations depend largely on these security firms, and the decree, and the lack of a definite timetable for the pull-out, was a big concern to international agencies, including election observers.

Afghanistan intimidates its visitors, not just the first-timers, simply because the situation always seems to be changing. When last year, some of us who observed the presidential election were still able to walk freely around Kabul to shop or sightsee without security escorts, this year we had to stay indoors most of the time, and definitely after sundown. UN personnel, targets of past attacks by the Taliban, were not even permitted to leave their guesthouses on the days around election day.

In many provinces, the situation was not as tense as it was in Kabul or in other areas like Kandahar and Nangarhar. In the northern province of Balkh and in Kapisa where NAMFREL observers were deployed, the security was very good, at least in the city areas where most of the popuation live. As in most provinces in the country, the situation was different though in the far-flung districts, where people complained of violence and intimidation, not necessarily from the Taliban but from candidates contesting the elections, especially those believed to be warlords or have connections with militias. Female candidates were especially affected by intimidation from their male counterparts, making many of them unable to campaign or send election day agents to certain areas.

Campaign for this election was noticeably more subdued (at least in the urban areas) compared with last year’s presidential election. On election day, we also noted that the turnout was noticeably lower than last year’s.

For the 2010 Wolesi Jirga elections, the biggest concerns for election observers apart from the security situation include the existence of fake voter cards, multiple voting, ink that was washable, ballot stuffing, vote buying, lack of training and voters education, among other things. In order to not pre-empt ANFREL, which would be releasing its detailed observations in the coming days, we will not go into further details regarding the pre-election, election day, and post-election observations of NAMFREL’s observers and their teammates.

Aside from election observation per se, ANFREL was also involved this time in the training of local election observers of the Free & Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) — also an ANFREL member-organization — up to the provincial and even district levels. FEFA deployed thousands of long-term and election day observers all over the country. The training program gave a rare opportunity for the Asian delegates to meet our Afghan counterparts. It was an eye-opening experience. Despite the cultural differences and the situations unique to Afghanistan, the Afghan observers basically have the same concerns like we do: free and fair elections, effective observation, a stable democracy.

As a founding member-organization, NAMFREL has been participating in ANFREL’s election observation missions, starting with the Cambodian parliamentary elections in 1997. ANFREL’s current chairperson is Mr. Damaso G. Magbual, NAMFREL’s Membership Committee chair.

Since its inception in 1983, NAMFREL volunteers have worked as trainers, observer team members, election administrators and resource persons in 31 countries so far. NAMFREL volunteers have been directly involved in the creation of similar election monitoring organizations in some of these countries.

(Note: We will continue giving updates on the results of the Wolesi Jirga elections, as well as terminal reports from other observer groups like ANFREL, FEFA, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Democracy International, as well as Afghanistan’s election agencies — the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC). Please follow NAMFREL on Twitter and Facebook.)

See the partial results from the Independent Election Commission HERE

Notes by Democracy International on the IEC press conference:

Counting

IEC Chairman Fazal Ahmad Manawi reports that the IEC has processed about 2,000 tamper-evident bags at the National Tally Center in Kabul containing polling center vote tallies, and of these 210 have been set aside for further inspection for potential problems. 66.7% of votes from Panjshir province have been recorded; 44.3% from Jowzjan province; 19.2% from Kapisa province; 19.2% from Parwan province; and 14.6% from Samangan province. The total number of votes recorded to date is 4,332,371. After receiving results from all polling centers and stations, the commission will decide which polling center’s ballot boxes need to be quarantined.

Financial Reports

Provincial candidate financial reports have been received from the following provinces: Panjshir, Herat, Wardak, Logar, Takhar, Faryab, Sar-e-Pul, Balkh, Kunduz, Badakhshan, Jowzjan, Samangan, Parwan, Kapisa, Laghman, Ghor, Kabul, Badghis and Farah.

Provinces that have submitted financial reports of the candidates and are in the database of commission are as follows: Panjshir, Wardak, Logar, Parwan and Kapisa. Some 22 candidates from the five provinces listed above have not submitted their financial reports to the commission.

Candidates

Two candidates from Badakhshan and Kapisa province have received illegal forms of assistance. Six candidates from Wardak, Kapisa and Parwan province have not registered their properties. All of the above will be forwarded to the ECC for further examination.

Source: ANFREL

INTERNATIONAL ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSION
AFGHANISTAN WOLESI JIRGA 2010

Interim report
September 22, 2010

The Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) deployed 30 short‐term observers from 11 countries to 11 provinces in Afghanistan to assess the 2010 Wolesi‐Jirga elections in the country. The following interim report covers a period of seven days of pre‐elections and an entire day of polling observation. The views and comments in this report is a reflection of the findings from the 11 provinces, without any attempt to generalize the overall situation during the elections in the country.

SUMMARY

The September 18 election was the second Wolesi‐Jirga in Afghanistan after the 2005 elections that allowed for a legitimate government to be set up. The event was widely viewed as a crucial step to strengthen democratic institutions in the country and a step forward in consolidating democracy amongst different stakeholders in the country. Notwithstanding, the violence, fraud and irregularities, which has marked the elections, it is worth noting that electoral processes so far have been a major factor in the democratic transition of Afghanistan. Although the voter turn out marked with less than 4 million casted ballots.

ANFREL deployed 30 observers to 11 provinces which are Kabul, Parwan, Pansheer, Kapisa, Bamyan, Badakshan, Baghlan, Balkh, Jawzjan, Hirat and Nangarhar from 12 – 25 September, 2010. The observation will continue until the first phase of tallying so as to monitor counting and adjudication of complaints in the provinces. The observers have covered cities and rural areas including prison polling centers in the provinces. They witnessed the proceedings from the opening up to the closing of the polling stations.

The role played by the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) and the Government of the Republic Islamic of Afghanistan is commendable particularly in initiating reforms and developing a mechanism to combat frauds and ensure cleaner elections. However, dominations by strong candidates control power on the ground to influence the elections for their benefits, and in many cases expropriating government assets and its machinery has been a key feature of the Wolesi Jirga.

Threat, violence and money‐power are widely acknowledged as an effective strategy to win the electoral battle preventing many candidates to contest the elections freely. In many other cases women and minority groups become the obvious victims of such practices. Vulnerable groups too become affected by intimidation allegedly from AGEs or other parties contesting in the electoral process. Ironically, not too many reports have been filed as those who are victimized by the system, particularly women candidates of the opinion that there would be no solution and complaints or reports from them may only worsen the problem.

Unbalanced campaigns using posters, banners displayed in every nook and corner in the country amongst candidates and political parties since the beginning of the process has been a major feature worrying practitioners of electoral democracy in Afghanistan.

Without limit on regulation for the campaign finance, the wealthy candidates are able to launch their campaign by utilizing mainstream and the alternative media, while the average candidates normally have problems in competing against them. There are many reports that confirm distribution of gifts to woo the voters.

Controversy regarding fake voter cards, which were earlier dismissed by the IEC as “rumors” needs further investigation as there have been instances to prove that voters and powerful people (either candidates agents, village and tribal chiefs) have attempted to use them. Cases of fake voter cards have been reported from Jawzjan and other parts of the country.

The other issue has been the quality of indelible ink, which has been a major concern. In a number of places it was found that the quality of the ink was poor and it could be rubbed off within minutes after applying on the finger. Incidentally, this is one part of the polling process, which acts as the ultimate safeguard to prevent cheating, and multiple voting.

Security issues appeared to be the major challenge to the conduct of the election, as it led to logistics hassles, problems in deployment of election officials and other operations related work. The move by the IEC to close polling centers and polling stations as a measure to prevent frauds is well appreciated, as it was done to protect civilians from coming to any obvious harm. However, it also led to a systemic process of disfranchisement, as many voters’ could not exercise their votes. To add to this is the inadequate distribution of ballot papers in many provinces, which led to many voters to lose their voting rights.

Continue reading

Source: ANFREL

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
September 21st, 2010

More Efforts Needed for Change and Long Term Commitment for Democracy

The Asian Network for Free Elections comprising of 30 citizen observers from 11 countries across Asia, congratulate the people of Afghanistan for their participation in the Wolesi Jirga Election. The September 18th election is another milestone towards strengthening democracy and respect the rule of law. The statement covers the pre‐election phase and voting day assessment by ANFREL observers.

Although the election was marred by a series of security threats and misconduct, the overall Election‐Day environment was relatively encouraging for the future of electoral democracy in Afghanistan. Credit goes to the Independent Election Commission (IEC), polling staff and the authorities for safeguarding the sanctity of the election. The functions and roles of the Election Complaints Commission (ECC), the Election Media Commission (EMC) and the Election Vetting Commission (EVC) have been instrumental in the improvement of the electoral processes.

However, a few important aspects needs mention. These are lack of a level playing field which is evident since there was no limitation on campaign funding, an effective mechanism to control intervention of government authorities and “strong‐men” favoring rich candidates or those that have ties with them. Obviously women and other minority groups are affected by social injustices and unequal competitions.

ANFREL expresses concerns over the disenfranchisement of voters caused by closing‐down of polling centers due to security concerns. The other issue that was a cause of concern was the shortage of ballot papers owing to improper distribution of polling centres in a number of provinces. This led to hundreds of voters losing their voting rights.

However, the strong initiative from the Government of Afghanistan to successfully open 90 percents of the polling centers is highly commendable. Furthermore, the IEC should have measures to prevent people losing their right to suffrage from the disenfranchisement.

Another important factor to note is that despite the assurances by the IEC that the indelible ink was of the highest quality, observers witnessed voters, easily washing off the ink mark on their fingers and using the opportunity to indulge in multiple voting. The alleged large‐scale production of fake voter cards found to be used on the polling day would have provided a safe haven for frauds to take place during the polls. Massive proxy voting also occurred as many women were represented by male, most commonly by their husband.

Finally, we call upon the ECC and PECC to enforce electoral justice by investigating all complaints and concerns of the election stakeholders through proper adjudication channel; fair and transparent process, we also call a full support from the government and the IEC to prove themselves by setting up highest standards in handling allegation of frauds as reflections of its interest to bring justice to the country.

For more clarification, please contact ANFREL Foundation officials:
Ms. Somsri Hananuntasuk (Executive Director) at +93‐(0) 706741869, or anfrel@anfrel.org
Mr. Ichal Supriadi (EOM Director) at +93 (0) 706741850, +93‐ (0) 793606013 or ichal@anfrel.org

Source: ECC

Kabul City 21 September 2010

Polling complaints period drawing to an end

The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) has today reminded the public that it requires sufficient evidence in order to investigate an alleged electoral irregularity fully and accurately. It has therefore called upon anyone who has evidence of an alleged electoral offence to lay a formal complaint.

The ECC asked for the cooperation of the media in reminding the public that today is the last day on which the Provincial Electoral Complaints Commissions (PECCs) and the ECC will accept complaints regarding events which occurred on Election Day. If, however, a complainant did not witness the event personally but came to hear of it later, a complaint may be filed within three days of the complainant learning of the incident. In exceptional cases the ECC may waive the three-day deadline.

Anyone or any organisation with a legitimate interest alleging that an electoral of- fence has been committed may file a complaint with a PECC or the ECC. Complaints, which must be in writing, may be filed at any IEC office, any PECC office or at the central office of the ECC. The ECC or a PECC may also investigate cases on its own initiative.
It should be emphasised that the identities of complainants are treated as confidential.

Electoral Complaints Commission
Shashdarak Koche Afghanhaa, Opposite Setara High School
Kabul, Afghanistan

For further information please visit www.ecc.org.af
If questions remain, contact ECC Public Outreach – 079 834 0174/0131 – ecc.media@ecc.org.af