Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: November 2018

Afghan Taliban Wants What It Hasn’t Been Able To Hold: Hazara Regions

AAN •

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 13 November 2018 AAN’s Ali Yawar Adili is quoted here about the recent fighting in Hazara regions in Uruzgan and Ghazni: “Hazara will never accept Taliban rule willingly, and will do their best to resist them,” says Ali Adili, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent think tank in […]

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U.S. Considers Asking Afghanistan to Suspend Presidential Election

AAN •

The Wall Street Journal, 13 November 2018 The Trump administration is discussing whether to press the Afghan government to suspend coming presidential elections, (…) as the U.S. seeks to engage the Taliban in talks to end the 17-year war. The possibility of such a step, one of several options being considered by U.S. officials, is […]

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Voters queue at Ali Baba High School in the provincial capital Parun, Paktika. Photo: Fazal Muzhary, October 2018.

The 2018 Election Observed (4) in Paktika: Pre-election fraud and relatively peaceful polling

Fazl Rahman Muzhary •

Where Paktika has been famous for ballot stuffing and mass proxy voting in previous elections, locals claim that this election was very different. A softer Taleban stance and a new slate of candidates, they say, allowed for more extensive campaigning. And the new electoral measures prevented rigging which, as a result, the electorate – including […]

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Violence, voter turnout, and Afghan elections

AAN •

IRIN, 9 November 2018 The news agency quotes “other election observers” – here AAN – who noted “acute violence” and low voter turnout in places like Kunduz Province:  “The question remains as to whether a larger number of people will take part in the presidential election scheduled for April 2019, if the security situation does […]

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‘انتخابات افغانستان؛ ‘بدترین در ۱۷ سال گذشته

Thomas Ruttig •

BBC Farsi, 8 November 2018 An op-ed by Thomas Ruttig on the October 2018 parliamentary elections: “The worst organised in 17 years” – the editors unfortunately changed the title to “one of the worst…”

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The 2018 Election Observed (3) in Kunduz: A Very Violent E-Day

Obaid Ali •

Kunduz province faced serious security issues during and after Election Day. The turnout was far lower than expected. This was mainly due to an almost unprecedented level of Taleban violence compared to most other provinces on that day. Three districts were deprived of their rights to vote in their entirety, while six others had a […]

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A women voter casting her vote in a polling centre in Kandahar City. Photo: Ali Mohammad Sabawoon, 2018.

The 2018 Election Observed (2) in Kandahar: Facing the same problems as the rest of the country

Ali Mohammad Sabawoon •

The people of Kandahar cast their vote on 27 October 2018, a week later than the rest of the country. Although no figures have been released, turnout appears to have been good in Kandahar city and Spin Boldak, as was expected, and patchy to nonexistent in most other districts. The IEC had stressed that the […]

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Election officials struggled with the new biometric verification devices, here being used in a polling centre in Daikundi. (Photo: Ehsan Qaane 2018)

Aftershocks of a Procedural Ambiguity: The IEC and ECC dispute over which votes to validate

Ali Yawar Adili •

When the Independent Election Commission (IEC), at the last minute, introduced the use of biometric machines in the Wolesi Jirga election, it approved a procedure stipulating that the votes cast without the new system would be invalid. But it never decidedly clarified what it would do with the polling stations that failed to use them. Then, […]

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Taliban vs. Taliban clash in Afghanistan’s west leaves 40 dead

Thomas Ruttig •

Stars and Stripes, 2 November 2018 In this article about clashes between rival Taleban groups in western Afghanistan, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted with some background: The breakaway group expected other disaffected Taliban would join, but no new groups seem to be signing on, said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.   

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