Voter registration begins in Konduz

Murad Khan, a farmer, waited patiently in a long queue on Tuesday. He was lining up to register as a voter, keen to take part in the first democratic initiative in Afghanistan in more than a generation, as UN-backed voter registration got under way in the northeastern city of Konduz for the country's national elections due to be held next year. Murad Khan told IRIN that even if the election went ahead, people in his village were unlikely to be able to vote for their choice of candidate. "They would not dare to vote against the wishes of the local commanders [warlords] and authorities if they continue to rule us and manipulate [local] government structures," he said quietly, anxious not to be overheard. Voter registration for next year's elections in Afghanistan started on Monday in eight provincial capitals, where, according to the UN, 19,000 district representatives of the Constitutional Loya Jirga (CLJ) were coming to elect delegates for the CLJ. "For the general public, more sites will open as the school term ends since the registration sites are located in school buildings," Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said. The UN estimates that 10.5 million eligible voters (18 or older by 20 June 2004) in Afghanistan need to be registered in three phases through the joint UN-Afghan government initiative. According to UNAMA, several challenges face the electoral registration in this traditional country devoid of infrastructure and ravaged by poverty. Geography, cultural issues, funding from the international community and security conditions will all be important factors in whether these first tentative steps towards democracy succeed. Although southern Afghanistan has been more insecure than other areas, becoming a virtual no-go region for UN and many NGO staff, attempts to reduce the risks in the north are being taken. "The decision to the carry out registration in a phased way will decrease the exposure of registration staff given the current security concerns," e Silva said, adding that the teams were being accompanied by a security task force led by the interior ministry. Registration teams are also likely to run into problems getting women on the voters roll. Zarineh Hasan, a local doctor in Konduz city, is one of the very few women who have been registered as voters in the last two days. She told IRIN that much more civic education was needed in order to draw women into the process. "As a doctor, in my experience, I know many villages that do not let their women go even to health clinics, so what about registration sites?" the 35-year-old gynaecologist maintained. UNAMA officials said they were trying to encourage as many people as possible to take part, and that their civic education teams were working hard to overcome cultural barriers and get women registered. "We have established separate sites for men and women. Meanwhile, compared to the south, the people here [in the northeast] are not too conservative," Metty Purnama, a regional coordinator for UNAMA's electoral component, told IRIN in Konduz. "After several meetings with mullahs, governmental officials and elders, we got some kind of compromise from them that we need to take the picture [ID photo for voter card] of the woman and it is optional; if they don't want to we don't force them," the official added. One head of household IRIN spoke to appeared to have no problem with female relatives registering to vote. "The more voters we have, the more chance for some changes here, " Haji Zaralam from Chahar Darreh village near Konduz told IRIN. He said he would let all the eligible female of his 10-member family get voter cards. "I will bring them with chadors [veils], and as far as the photo is optional there is no problem," the 55-year-old shopkeeper said. Analysts say elections scheduled for next June are vital to building confidence in the country's fledgling political process. However, a local think-tank, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, released a statement last week arguing that holding elections next year in a climate of insecurity and stalled reconstruction was risky and could lead to further instability.