For those of you that do not know; last Saturday, Afghanistan had its third presidential election. This will be the first time in Afghanistan that presidential powers will be handed over peacefully. Despite international concerns for the election and Taliban promises, there have been little to no terrorist attacks to intimidate the voters. This compared with Iraq's recent elections, has led me to believe that Afghanistan is turning out to be quite a success story. According to a friend in Kabul, people were excited to cast their vote, and you don't have to look any further than the number that went out and voted to see this: 58% (an equivalent percentage to the number that voted in the US 2012 election). The two front runners, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani are both businessmen and seem like good choices for Afghanistan's future. Ghani is more favored in the international community, because he has spent many years abroad, while Abdullah appears to be the hometeam favorite. Abdullah, looking at his record, seems better suited because of his dedication to liberate Afghanistan from Taliban oppression during the late 90s.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/13/us-afghanistan-election-idUSBREA3C07T20140413
4 comments:
It has been stated that there have been little to no terrorist attacks. I wonder how accurate that statistic is. Where is America getting this information from? And how do we know it is true? Even if there was still little terrorist attacks to intimidate voters, that is still terrorist activity. Is anything being done to end the little to no terrorist attacks? What the media states about these facts are not always true.
To add on to Sam's statement, just because there is little to no terrorist attacks doesn't mean that voters aren't getting intimidated in other ways. Moreover, while 58 percent sounds great for Afghanistan who is only on their 3rd presidential election, what does that say about our voting participation which is the same without any forms of intimidation? Furthermore, if Afghanistan is already at our level are they destined to see a decline in participation that is lower than it is now?
A lot of democracy scholars used what is called the "two-turnover" test in order to define a consolidated democracy. This test is satisfied when power is peacefully transferred between elected administrations twice. In light of this, it will be interesting to see if Afghanistan will be able to peacefully undergo another power transition in the future. Although one turnover of power gives observes some hope, I am not very optimistic about the future success of Afghan democracy.
@Samantha
Of course things are being done to prevent terrorist attacks. We haven't been investing in the state of Afghanistan for over a decade for nothing. And it is not America getting the information, it is Afghanistan providing it. And of course, it might not be 100% true, but that does not mean it is 100% false. If you compare the situation to the Iraqi elections last year, the Afghan elections were relatively more peaceful.
@Amber
58% is good considering that the last Afghan presidential election had a significantly lower turnout, there are still rural areas where the Taliban are influential, and that Afghanistan has poor infrastructure meaning that a lot of people probably were not even able to vote.
@Kevin
That is true, the results of this election will be the true test of the Afghanistan democracy. I on the other hand, am rather optimistic.
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