Voters keen to cast their ballots despite risks

As the country proceeds towards its first post-conflict presidential election, Afghans are optimistic that despite many remaining difficulties, a democratic poll will make a difference to their lives. Almost 10 million eligible Afghans have registered for the forthcoming vote, most appear enthusiastic about selecting a leader who would bring peace and prosperity to the country. "I have got a voter registration card and I want to vote for the one who can help us and guarantee that there won't be further conflicts," Sahib Shah, a 60-year-old farmer, told IRIN in Khairkhana, a village north of the capital Kabul that was on the front line between Taliban and opposition Northern Alliance forces during the civil war. Meanwhile, Fahima, a 35-year-old teacher said she hoped a genuinely-elected government would change the lives of hundreds of thousands of homeless people like her. The mother-of-four said she would only vote for a candidate who would promise to solve the severe housing problem in the country. "I want to have my own house because I cannot afford these high rents," she said. After months of uncertainty, violence against election workers and several postponements, Afghans will take part in the democratic poll on 9 October. Parliamentary elections have been postponed until early next year. Registering an estimated 9.8 million voters in a country with poor roads and still plagued by violence has been a major achievement, the fact that 41 percent of the total registered are women, even more so. "This registration process has concluded after a number of problems and what is even more remarkable is the number of Afghans registered in spite of these problems," Manoel de Almeida e Silva, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), told IRIN. He added that despite this, security would be a major challenge on polling day itself. "During registration we did not have to cover the whole country on the same day, but on 9 October there will be at least 5,000 voting centres that would require protection." An estimated one hundred thousand Afghans would be employed to administer the election. UNAMA and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), along with local NGOs, have already started voter awareness campaigns in different parts of the country. In addition, meetings with community leaders, political party representatives, elders and religious leaders to discuss the election process are being held up and down the country to maximise participation. But despite the optimism, Afghans have many concerns about the process. Masouda Jalal is the only woman out of 18 presidential candidates. She said poor security and the continued rule of the gun would make it difficult to have a fair and free election. "There are major security challenges in front of us, they will impact the most on women voters," she told IRIN. The presence of powerful local leaders, many with their own private militias, means many Afghans have withdrawn from candidacy because they felt pressure from competing powerful people in their areas. "Some of the candidates did not dare to collect the signatures of 10,000 registered voters as required for nomination of a presidential candidate," Latif Pedram, another presidential hopeful, told IRIN. He added it was challenging and risky to be a candidate if you did not have military power or plenty of money. Recent months have seen a series of attacks on election workers and registered voters. Last month, in several incidents, Taliban fighters killed at least 18 people after discovering voting cards on them or for doing electoral work in the southern Uruzgan province. On 5 July, militants collected and burned the voting cards of women in a village in the southeastern Paktia province. Since the beginning of the registration process, 10 Afghan and two foreign staff members of the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) have been killed in Afghanistan. The JEMB consists of representatives of President Karzai's interim government and the United Nations. Najiba, 22, a female student was also scared of violence during voting, but remained eager to cast her vote and select a leader. "I heard that warlords will not allow people to go to polling stations," she told IRIN in the east of Kabul. "But this is our first real chance to have a say in who rules us, I must do it, whatever the risks."