Lisa Bandari

Waiting for the election results

We, like everyone in Afghanistan, are in suspense, waiting for the election results. I attended the first of the long-awaited IEC press conferences on Tuesday 25 August, to announce the first 10% of results for the presidential elections. Everyone was there, from journalists to researchers, to election observers and diplomats. The atmosphere was buzzing, with journalists deep in conversations with contacts at the corners of the room before the conference started, and everyone comparing notes so far.

We all eagerly scribbled down the figures when they finally arrived, in Dari and English, checking with each other on decimal points and provinces. Journalists were the first to start calculating what they might mean for the overall turnout and result, ready for release on the wires - although it remains guesswork at this stage.

Earlier this week I visited the National Tally Centre, where all the results from the provinces are being collated. Beneath an imposing looking hangar in the IEC compound is an impressive data entry centre, with lots of young people sitting at computer screens tapping away at keyboards. I chatted to a couple of the candidate agents observing in the gallery section, and asked them where the results had come in from, and whether any had been quarantined. After one candidate agent moved the conversation on to Iranian pop music, I beat a hasty retreat.

I’ve just been looking at the new website www.iec.org.af/results, with an attractive interactive map, but again, just not quite enough information to draw conclusions on the overall results. I and my colleagues will continue to follow the results through the IEC website and their press conferences  - the crawl up the hill to the Intercontinental for those is made up for by its striking views over Kabul.

Posted at 18:04 27 August 2009 by Lisa Bandari  |  Comments[1]

Afghanistan Elections: Polling Day

I’ve just returned from a visit with the Ambassador to a polling centre in an Ismaili religious compound in Taimani, an area of Kabul, feeling exhilarated. The polling centre was busy. There were long queues outside the male and female stations, and searches before they were allowed to enter. As ever, I was flattered when the policeman on the gate mistook me for the interpreter, but tried to remember the Dari for ‘international observer’, as I wasn’t sure he could read the card I handed him.

The male and female polling stations were at different ends of the compound. Male voters were queuing in the sunshine to vote in a small tent, while the women had the better deal, voting in a building.

The women’s queue was lively, with lots of chatting. Female security staff joined hands to form a kind of cordon to keep them in check. There was a slight scuffle with one woman in the queue, and some remonstrating. I flashed my international observer card to get past the Afghan police and female staff into the centre, feeling slightly nervous about not having my male Afghan colleague with me to interpret. But I needn’t have worried.

In the centre itself, everyone was very friendly, asking me where I was from, and politely answering my questions. It was orderly and well staffed, despite having twelve cardboard polling screens crammed into one room, and lots of polling centre staff. The voters queued up in two neat rows, and entered three or four at a time. They registered showing their cards and were given two ballot papers, one for presidential and one for provincial council elections. The latter was like a small book, with over 500 candidates on the ballot. The voters disappeared behind the cardboard before carefully depositing their ballots in the ballot boxes. A stern female member of staff circulated, checked who I was, and generally kept things in order.

A line of earnest candidate agents with badges drooped round their necks watched the process keenly, clutching pens and forms. Two of them told me they were representing Abdullah, and one Karzai, and three were there on behalf of provincial council candidates. A male Spanish journalist wandered in amongst the bustle, and stood looking slightly bemused. Everyone seemed to ignore him.

I found it very heartening to see the various papers and posters on voting procedures finally come to life in a real polling centre, with engaged voters, and IEC staff who seemed to know the process. The high numbers of young women were particularly encouraging.

Reports from colleagues out on the ground suggests similar impressions in Kabul – an orderly, calm, if slightly less excited atmosphere, and IEC staff following procedures. We’re hearing reports of hole punches being a problem, and some concerns about the ink, but otherwise cautious optimism on the process so far.

Am keeping my fingers crossed for the rest of the day, but I feel privileged to have been a very small part of a very important process.

Posted at 16:28 20 August 2009 by Lisa Bandari  |  Comments[4]

Afghanistan Elections: Final day of campaigning

I, like many of my Afghan colleagues, sat avidly watching the second of the Presidential debates with the leading candidates last night – using my imperfect language skills to try to understand their Dari responses, and watching the body language when they went into Pashto. The incumbent, Hamid Karzai, appearing on a debate for the first time in the campaign, appeared poised and confident, and covered familiar ground. Dr Bashardost, former Planning Minister and parliamentarian, was impassioned with the popular touch, and Dr Ghani, former Finance Minister and World Bank official, outlined detailed policy plans.

As someone who’s worked on Afghan domestic politics and elections for a year, I’ve eagerly awaited these final days. It’s been fascinating to compare campaigning in the UK with campaigning in Afghanistan, where modern campaigning methods have co-existed alongside more traditional methods to get the vote out. Rather than the slick ad campaigns I remember from the UK, more conventional posters of the candidates adorn walls and lampposts, in a variety of outfits to appeal to different demographics.

And with similarities to the US campaign style, the leading candidates have held large rallies for supporters – but offered them free lunches as incentives to turn up. More modern campaign fixtures such as opinion polls  have also stimulated debate among Kabul politics watchers, with speculation on whether any candidate will pull off the 50% needed to win on the first round. These are reassuringly familiar to Western diplomats, but need to be treated with caution here, where opinion polls are not established predictors of election success, and where some unknowns still remain for polling day.

Poster promoting the elections

I’ve spoken to as many people as I can on how they will make their decisions on Thursday. It seems to me that the results are likely to be determined by a mixture of the old (ethnic, tribal, party political and historical allegiances), and the new, particularly for younger, educated voters (policy platforms and vision). Both come down to individuals, and their communities, making judgements about which candidate will best safeguard their future.

As I work with my colleagues to finalise our own preparations for polling day, including taking part in the EU’s observation mission here, it’s easy for us to forget in the election frenzy that these elections are a stopping point in the country’s wider democratic journey. The engagement and faith of the Afghan people in the process, both for provincial and presidential elections, is as important as the results.

The young men and women who will vote in this election and who make up a huge proportion of the population will be crucial in securing the country on the right path. As someone grateful for the sacrifices British women made to bring us the vote in the UK, I hope they turn out to have their voices heard, and claim their stake in their country’s future.

Posted at 16:04 18 August 2009 by Lisa Bandari  |  Comments[1]