UN envoy optimistic of fair and free election

Despite the challenges, the situation in Afghanistan is favourable for a fair and free election, said the United Nations special envoy for the country on Wednesday. Jean Arnault, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, said the historic election in three days time would draw to an end the rule of the gun in a country ravaged by over two decades of war. "We know that Afghans want this election in a large measure because they think this is a tool to put the rule of the gun behind [them]," Arnault told IRIN in the capital, Kabul. More than 10 million people, including at least four million women, have registered to vote on Saturday. According to Arnault, the winner of Saturday's presidential election - the first in the country's history - can claim to genuinely represent the nation, despite the limitations surrounding the poll process. "We feel that this can be a meaningful election [and] that the winner can be a full representative of this nation." But the UN special envoy conceded there had been shortcomings in the electoral process, as well as widespread unfamiliarity with democratic institutions and continuing insecurity by extremist groups. "We believe that this election is critical because all that violence that is still there by extremists or their factions can only be brought to an end if you somehow have a stronger government." Despite Arnault's optimism, only in the last two weeks, surveys and reports by national and international organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) have warned that Afghans would hold their first democratic elections under fear of disruption and sabotage by members of the ousted Taliban and local armed militia forces. "Massive security failure throughout the country would certainly call into question the legitimacy of the elections. A situation where half the population was prevented from showing [up] at the polls would create a crisis of legitimacy," Arnault said. "We don't quite believe that is going to happen." He said many factors, including the registration of over 10 million people, a nationwide election campaign, as well as a well coordinated security plan bringing together US-led forces, NATO-led peacekeepers and the Afghan national army and police, had given him confidence. "We believe that [through] last minute efforts made, those extremists that want the process to fail will not succeed and the followers of the rule of the gun will not succeed," he maintained.