Afghanistan Parliamentary Election Tests Its Fragile Democracy

With Taliban & ISIS hell-bent on scattering the vote and Presidential elections due next year, this is a tough test.

A woman casts her vote in the 2014 presidential elections. Image used for representation.

(Photo: Reuters/Zohra Bensemra)

The Afghanistan Parliamentary elections have already been delayed twice – they were originally supposed to happen in 2015. The reason for the delay? The National Unity Government of President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, have been unable to coordinate and implement electoral reforms to avoid the perception of illegitimacy and controversy that plagued the 2014 presidential election.

This is the third parliamentary election since 2014, but already, about one third (over 2,000 out of over 7,000) of all polling stations in the war-torn nation are closed for security reasons, and nine candidates, including one woman, have been killed. The elections are also a test for the Afghan army, which had to boost security just two days before the polls due to attacks on candidates and polling stations.

Seen as a precursor to the presidential elections in 2019, how the parliamentary elections go today and over the next two weeks will indicate what can be expected from the much higher stakes context next year.

With so many polling stations closed, with difficulties accessing the open stations for many rural and semi-rural Afghans, and with the Taliban and ISIS on a mission to scuttle any perception of a free and fair election, it seems likely that like 2014, these elections too will be marred by voter suppression and widespread allegations of fraud.

Taliban and ISIS Tag-Team

The resurgent Taliban has refused to recognise the election, calling it an "American conspiracy to further justify the foreign occupation," reported RFERL. It regards the Afghan government as a puppet of America, and has therefore pushed for negotiation and talks with the US government directly while refusing to sit down with the Afghan government.

On polling day, 20 October, the Taliban has claimed to have shut down all polling stations in Kunduz district, and continues to attack polling stations across the country.

On 18 October, just two days before the election, a shooting in Kandahar killed its police chief General Abdul Raziq, the NDS chief of the province, and wounded the provincial governor Zelmai Wesa as well as two US troops. NYT's senior correspondent called it a wipe-out of the "entire provincial leadership", and it was claimed by the Taliban. Authorities have decided to delay the Kandahar election by a week, reportedly to give people time to attend the funerals.

Two of Raziq's guards had opened fire on him, with the target supposedly being Gen Scott Miller, the US commander with whom the officials were meeting – he escaped unharmed. The meeting was on how to ensure security during the elections.

On 16 October, Nangarhar province saw increased militant attacks. The province was the deadliest for American troops in 2017, being a stronghold of both the Taliban and the Afghanistan branch of ISIS. This year, the nascent Afghani ISIS has killed hundreds in Nangarhar in 17 attacks, reported Reuters.

With the US having over 8,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan, it is keen to get the country up and running as a stable democracy. Contending with a war-weary American public and an unending ‘war on terror’, Afghanistan’s successful elections are a priority for the US. Terror groups use this fact, and the fact that US intervention in 2014 paved the way for the National Unity Government after the country almost lapsed into civil war, to argue that the election is US-led, not Afghan-led, and therefore illegitimate.

Women Turn Up

Out of over 2,500 candidates, 417 are women  – a mere 16% (approximately), but it's the largest proportion that has ever contested in the country.

Sixty eight of 250 Parliament seats in the lower house are reserved for women, who now hold 69 – a higher percentage, thanks to the quota, than exists in the US Congress.

Afghanistan's parliament may have more female representation than some western nations, but women candidates still face threats, kidnapping, and murder at much higher rates than their male counterparts, and they are still constrained by their male counterparts and benefactors.

"Females candidates win elections with the help of powerful male politicians who in turn expects them to work as stooges in the parliament, rarely allowing them to have an independent opinion," said Nasrullah Stanekzai, a political science professor and ex-legal advisor to President Ashraf Ghani said to Channel News Asia.

Fraud and Fear

Along with militants and terrorists managing to suppress large parts of the vote and force delays, there is also the problem of fraud to deal with. As voting started, there were already concerns of polling stations opening late, problems with the new biometric system that was introduced to reduce fraud, and continuing allegations of fraudulent voter cards. By some estimates, out of the 8.8 million registered voters in Afghanistan, as much as 50% or above are believed to be fraudulently registered or incorrectly obtained, reports Reuters.


In conditions like these, where potential voters risk death and injury just to go and give their vote, and in which the eventual results will be contested by many, Afghanistan's democracy stands on shaky ground.