The Afghanistan Election: Scott Lucas on Al Jazeera English (12 August)

I have been unable to write as much on Afghanistan recently as I would like to, especially with the Presidential election scheduled for 20 August. So it was a pleasure yesterday to exchange views on Al Jazeera English's Inside Story with the Independent Member of Parliament, Daoud Sultanzoy. Despite some technical problems, we were able to consider the election, wider political issues inside Afghanistan, the possibility of disruption of the vote, and the plans of other key players such as the US Government.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxvoIVw8afg[/youtube]

Comments

[Josh Mull]

Re: Election disruption

http://www.registan.net/index.php/2009/07/30/good-news-about-the-election/

"This is wonderful news! Seriously, I was worried when the Taliban hadn’t contested any of the voter registration drives, not even in insurgency-ridden areas like Ghazni or Kunar. To me, that indicated they felt so unthreatened by the election that it was fine to let it proceed—and even worse, the inevitability of Hamid Karzai to lose/win could be easily spun into “democracy doesn’t work.”

But now the Taliban seem genuinely concerned by the election. If they want to disrupt it, that means they think it carries much more importance than several months ago, when registration was proceeding relatively unmolested. That they now want to create a ruckus means something has changed that has made them nervous about what a successful election, even if it’s just forcing Karzai into a run off, could mean.

Sounds kind of paradoxical, but it makes a lot of sense."

[Fintan Dunne]

A balanced and informed contribution to the debate Scott. The most important point you made is the question of the reliability of the count and the potential impact of that concern on the post-election situation.