Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: August 2009

AAN Election Blog No. 27: A mysterious election and a fluid count

Martine van Bijlert •

Analysing the 2009 Afghan election as they are unfolding is quite a unique experience. An observer from Global Democracy, recently quoted in Kabul Weekly (26 August 2009), aptly called this “a mysterious election” in which “even the number of voters is not known”. And mysterious it is. Even the most basic analysis is shaky in […]

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AAN Guest Blog: The US’s strongman policy in Afghanistan

Joanna Nathan •

Here is a reply written by our friend and AAN member JOANNA NATHAN* to the New York Times article ‘Accused of Drug Ties, Afghan Official Worries U.S.’ It was posted first on The AfPak Channel, a blog of the Foreign Policy magazine, on 28 August 2009. Thursday’s New York Times ran this interesting article drawing together material […]

International Engagement Read more

AAN Election Blog No. 26: If no one saw it, did it happen? – AAN recommended election reading (UPDATED)

Martine van Bijlert •

The further you get from where things happened, the easier it is to wonder whether they ever took place at all. And whether the reports (and echoes of reports) and denials (and echoes of denials) are not just a matter of claim, counterclaim and unsubstantiated rumour. Whether the calls of fraud are not just part […]

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Präsident Karzai vor zweiter Amtszeit? Sicherheitsprobleme und Legitimitätsdefizite bei den Präsidentschaftswahlen in Afghanistan

Thomas Ruttig •

Thomas Ruttig. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik: Berlin, SWP-Aktuell 2009/A, August 2009 (President Karzai before a second term? Security problems and legitimacy deficits of Afghanistan‘s presidential elections – in German) Incumbent Hamed Karzai aims at a second term of office in Afghanistan‘s presidential elections on 20 August. A lack of alternatives, his astute positioning and use […]

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A response to AAN Election Blog No. 23

Martine van Bijlert •

A reader responds to AAN Election Blog No. 23 (How much are we expected to believe?): “This article was forwarded to me by a friend. I was impressed with this article as it really reflects the concern of an Afghan who stepped out of his/her house with a hope and besides all risks cast his/her […]

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Epistemology of Reconciliation

Thomas Ruttig •

Read a report by Aunohita Mojumdar about the AIAS/USIP 26 August 2009 Kabul launch of Michael Semple’s book ‘Reconciliation in Afghanistan’ with Nader Nadery from the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and Thomas Ruttig from AAN on the podium under ‘past events’. For the full report click here.

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AAN Election Guest Blog 2: This is how election fraud worked in Kandahar

Willi Germund •

It was already dark and Afghanistan‘s elections had been over since three hours. Then suddenly two men accompanied by three police cars with armed and uniformed escorts showed up in front of the polling site in Kandahar’s Aino Mena neighbourhood. Very relaxed they entered the premises where ballot boxes where waiting to be picked up […]

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AAN Election Guest Blog 1: Logar – any voters out there?

Christoph Reuter •

For various reasons Logar seemed to be an interesting area to develop an understanding about the insurgency, the elections – and electoral fraud. The province, just south of Kabul, has the reputation to be at least partly controlled by Taleban. US forces conducted numerous raids in spring and had clashes with armed opponents. Only recently […]

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AAN Election Blog No. 25: Balm for Election Sores

Thomas Ruttig •

The partial results presented by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) in a well-attended press conference today in Kabul are mainly meant to calm down the tense atmosphere of accusations and counter-accusations that has developed since E-Day by applying a dose of transparency. It does not say much about what the outcome of the elections will […]

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AAN Election Blog No. 24: Stuffing and Counting in Paktia

Thomas Ruttig •

A few days after the election, Paktia is in counting mode. Results from the districts trickle in and are collected and reconcilied by the different candidates’ campaigns. Also reports about a lot of irregularities are coming in, despite the low coverage of independent election observers. On the first two days after the election, Afghans in […]

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AAN Election Blog No. 23: How much are we expected to believe?

Martine van Bijlert •

As journalists are starting to pack up and go home and observers are formulating their conclusions (some irregularities, need to work on the voter registration) it seems that the real contest is yet to start. The network of governors, district governors, police chiefs and local commanders, that was mobilised in the run up to the […]

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A clarification

Thomas Ruttig •

Some German-language media have quoted me over the past days as saying that the turn-out during the Afghan presidential elections was ‘low except in the urban centres’. This seems to indicate that I spoke about all of Afghanistan. In fact, I said that this assessment only referred to South-Eastern Afghanistan, with the four provinces of […]

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