They say they have no idea how many voters are really on the
rolls because multiple registrations have resulted in nearly
twice as many registered voters as eligible ones, said Noor
Mohammed Noor, spokesman for the Independent Election
Commission.
The registration cards have no expiry date, there
is no database to track them, and they are good for any
election, he said.
Nader Nadery, head of the nonpartisan Free and Fair Election
Foundation of Afghanistan, said it is too early to charge fraud,
but "there is a lot of smoke out there . . . the level of
suspicion is high."
With foreign troops set to withdraw from Afghanistan at the
end of next year, a credible April 6 election would do much to
validate the West's efforts over 12 years to foster democracy in
the country.
The 2009 election, which gave President Hamid Karzai a second
term, was severely marred by allegations of fraud. Suspicions
ran from ballot-box-stuffing and bogus registration cards to men
from deeply conservative areas turning up at polling stations
with handfuls of registration cards to vote on behalf of female
relatives, arguing that custom forbade the women to appear in
public.
Constitutionally limited to two terms, Karzai is not in the
running. But Noor said he worries the glut of registration cards
could taint the April 6 poll, while Andrew Wilder of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a federally funded conflict-resolution body,
said ballot-stuffing was an even bigger threat.
Holding an election in a country still reeling from 30 years
of conflict and struggling to strengthen weak and often corrupt
institutions is a herculean task, say experts and candidates.
Taliban threats cast a further damper.
"Poor security in parts of the country will make it difficult
and dangerous for candidates to campaign, and for voters to go
to the polls and vote on election day," said Wilder. "Poor
security, as we saw in the 2009 elections, also makes it
difficult for observers and party agents to monitor elections,
and provides a great opportunity for ballot-box-stuffing."
While past Taliban warnings have failed to disrupt elections,
the insurgents are again threatening to kill candidates,
election workers and voters, and there are fears that the
approaching departure of foreign troops will sharpen the
Taliban's appetite for violence.
The threats to the fragile democratic process are reflected
in the election commission's Kabul headquarters, surrounded by
anti-blast walls, barbed wire and phalanx of security forces in
an otherwise ordinary district of the capital.
Speaking to The Associated Press in his office here,
spokesman Noor says: "This is the reality of this country. We
are conducting elections in a difficult situation, with poor
security, but we must conduct elections.
"It is the only way for our country to succeed."
