Questionable campaigning in Afghanistan
President Hamid Karzai
Afghan voters will head to the polls in the first round of the presidential elections tomorrow. In preparation for the elections President Hamid Karzai – who served as Interim President beginning in 2002 until he won presidential elections in 2004 – has initiated a series of controversial measures in an attempt to woo certain sectors of the diverse Afghan population.
Last week a new law went into effect with Karzai’s approval. The law is a new version of a bill that sparked international outrage last month because it legalized rape within marriage. President Karzai promised to review the bill in response to criticisms, but the version that passed quietly last week is still repugnant to human rights groups. Critics of the bill say that Karzai allowed it to pass in order to win support from conservative Shiites. The bill includes provisions that:
-allow a husband to starve his wife for refusing to have sex with him
-forbid a woman to work without permission from her husband
-give exclusive guardianship of children to fathers and grandfathers
-protect rapists from prosecution by allowing them to pay girls “blood money” for injuries they sustained during their rape
Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, has spoken out virulently against the law and President Karzai’s support for it. In an interview with the Guardian he said:”The rights of Afghan women are being ripped up by powerful men who are using women as pawns in maneuvers to gain power.”
General Dostum
Karzai has also faced ire from the international community over his decision to allow General Abdurrashid Dostum back into Afghanistan. Doshum – whose troops allegedly took place in a massacre in 2001 that left 2,000 Taliban prisoners dead and buried in mass graves at Dasht-e-Leili – had been exiled to Turkey for refusing to cooperate in an investigation over the shooting of one of his rivals. Doshum is ethnically Uzbek and it is believed that Karzai allowed him to return to court Uzbeki voters.
Karzai isn’t the only one gearing up for the elections. Though deals have been reached with many local militia leaders to ensure peace on election day, the Taliban continues to threaten the elections. There was an upsurge of violence today in Kabul including two mortar attacks, one on the presidential palace and another on police headquarters. An additional attack left seven dead and 52 wounded after a suicide car bomber drove into a convoy of Western troops in the capital. The dead included two Afghan employees of the United Nations.
Violence isn’t the only threat. Allegations of voting fraud and corruption are already swirling around the elections. Today the BBC published a report that an Afghani working undercover for the news station in Kabul found that voting cards were being sold and was offered 1,000 cards at a rate of around $10 each. A senior official with the Afghan Independent Election Commission denied that voting cards were being sold and said that even if a black market for voting cards exists, fraudulent cards wouldn’t be able to be used during the elections.
There is some good news. On Sunday President Karzai and two of his three main opponents – Ashraf Ghani and Ramazan Bashardost – participated in the first presidential debate in Afghanistan’s history. And all four of the serious candidates – which includes Abdullah Abdullah in addition to the three listed above – claim to be dedicated to achieving peace with the Taliban. Though the election will almost definitely be corrupted by some instances of fraud, it is still an election that will be moderately fair.
