Despite Progress, Afghan Election Results Unlikely to Be Upheld
Some female Afghan voters were deterred over requirements they have their photo taken (Image)
The recent Afghan presidential elections are unlikely to hold legitimacy despite claims that the election is the most transparent of the four elections held since 2001. The election results were supposed to be announced on Oct. 19, but the Independent Election Commission (IEC) claim technical issues and the necessity for transparency has delayed the announcement to Nov. 14.
Many voters were greeted with confrontational election workers, faulty biometric identification systems and incomplete voter lists. Reports have been filed with the Electoral Complaints Committee and officials say the number and severity of fraud cases is lower than during previous elections. They also reported that there were many technical issues with the Dermalog biometric machines, as well as an attempt to hack into the machines that are designed to prevent duplicate votes.
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview with the Associated Press that the vote could be destabilizing for the country at a time of deep political uncertainty and could harm the prospect of negotiating a peace process with the Taliban.
A handful of commissioners were confident in the biometric verification technology, which uses fingerprints to automatically void duplicate votes. However, soon after the elections some voting stations reported hundreds of cases of fraud. Ruhollah Nawroz of the Independent Complaints Commission said the problems were widespread across Afghanistan. The proclamations of fraud have slowed down the vote recording and counting, which in turn makes Afghans suspicious of more fraud.
Hawa Alam Nuristani, head of the IEC announced that “this [election] is a fate-determining issue in the country and we cannot accept sacrificing transparency for speed.”
The biometric machines register a voter’s biometric data before they are allowed to vote. The data is transferred to a central database and is also printed out in an encrypted form to the ballot. This is meant to offer a way to invalidate duplicate votes. The machines require a fingerprint of some sort and/or a photograph, as well as a printed QR code sticker attached.
Some female voters could not or would note vote because of the requirement that they be photographed - something that religiously conservative Afghans are resistant to allow.
The worry about the biometric systems’ legitimacy is exacerbated by low voter turnout. Curbed by an uptick in violence by the Taliban as well as a lack of enthusiasm surrounding the elections, voter turnout was lower in this election than it was for the previous three elections since 2001. Some also fear that there has been artificially high voter turnout reported in areas with sparse voting with the Independent Election Commission’s tabulation centers reporting 90 percent turnout.
The leading candidates for the election are incumbent president Ashraf Ghani and incumbent chief executive Abdullah Abdullah. The two have governed the country since the 2014 election, where no winner was declared and the U.S. created a unity government in which the two shared power.
If neither candidate wins 51 percent of the vote, a second round of voting is necessary between the two leading candidates. With the delays in results announcements, it is unlikely that the second round of voting will be held before the end of this year.