Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Reports

Reports – previously known as dispatches – are the flagship of the AAN website and our main type of publication. AAN reports are based on extensive desk and field research and provide timely and in-depth information and analysis.

AAN Election Blog No. 30: Which votes are to be counted – a crucial battle

Martine van Bijlert •

As the press continued to recount stories from far-flung districts (outraged elders, stuffed ballot boxes, intimidated electoral staff); as the international actors were “allowing the process to run its course”; as the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) stoically continued to announce its batches of preliminary count results, while releasing more and more “dirty” ballot boxes into […]

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UNODC Sees Afghan Drug Cartels Emerging – With One Eye Closed

Thomas Ruttig •

U.N. Sees Afghan Drug Cartels Emerging’, reads a headline in the 2 September issue of the New York Times. Now the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) got it. Or did it? The headline reminds of a 2008 World Bank paper (William A. Byrd, Responding to Afghanistan’s Opium Economy Challenge, The World Bank, South Asia […]

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AAN Election Blog No. 29: ‘A fraud would go unnoticed’

Thomas Ruttig •

Imagine it is election-day and someone else casts your vote. It is possible because in many polling stations no one will ask for your ID card. Malalai Nassir (not her real name) was flabbergasted. When she went to the ballot box on election-day, the electoral staff did not check her ID card. No, that’s not […]

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AAN Election Blog No. 28: Two Paktias?

Thomas Ruttig •

A member of the US PRT in Paktia also experienced that amazingly brilliant blue sky over Paktia. But the elections she saw were quite different from what I have experienced there. When I went to the polling site in Tandar village in Paktia, some 22 kilometres away from the provincial capital Gardez, on election-day on […]

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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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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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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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