Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Martine van Bijlert

2010 Elections 15: What a Kunar Candidate Complains About

Martine van Bijlert •

These days are filled with stories of electoral fraud and irregularities, copies of complaints forms, grainy videos, and the wait for some solid results to be posted on the IEC website. Some reports are more detailed than others and some are so detailed and illustrative that they are worth repeating. The following is a report […]

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2010 Elections 12: Behind the complaints

Martine van Bijlert •

Candidates, candidate supporters and observers are awaiting the posting of the preliminary results, to see what has been made of the messiness that surrounded much of the polling. The first partial result was released on 23 September 2010 – Panjshir with 66.7% of the vote counted – but the results per polling stations are still […]

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2010 Elections 9: So how did the elections go?

Martine van Bijlert •

Like others we have been fielding questions all day on how yesterday’s elections went. And we’ve been saying the same thing in all its variations: it’s too early to tell. It will take several days for the initial reports and impressions to settle. It will take a bit longer to filter out the distortions. Then […]

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Let's talk turnout in the parliamentary election in Paktia 2010: polling staff, no voters, in the afternoon. Photo: Thomas Ruttig

2010 Elections 8: Let’s talk turnout (updated)

Martine van Bijlert •

The IEC has released a figure for the indicative turnout of yesterday’s poll (40%). It is now being widely repeated and compared to other figures, including previous elections and turnout percentages in our home countries. It happens so often. For some reason nobody finds it necessary to understand where these random figures come from and […]

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2010 Elections – No comment 2: Special Direction of the IEC Chairman to All IEC Staff

Martine van Bijlert •

Special Direction of the Chairman of the IEC to all IEC Provincial Officers and Staff. Released 15 September 2010 by the IEC Chairman’s Office and sent out by the IEC Information and External Relations Department. “We all know that election is a national process by conducting of which, people’s power is exercised in the system […]

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2010 Elections – No comment 1: GMIC Media Advisory

Martine van Bijlert •

Released on 16 September 2010, under number 245, by the Government Media and Information Center, Office of the Spokesperson of the President “The parliamentary elections will take place two days from now. The government of Afghanistan is doing everything to pave the way for free and successful elections. Four hundred thousand national and international forces […]

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2010 Elections 3: Two totally different worlds

Martine van Bijlert •

As the country gets ready for the elections, the discussions – as usual – focus on security and fraud. There seem to be two worlds. One is the world of procedures, barcodes, scanners and tamper-evident bags. Of recruitment criteria, complaints forms, female searchers and police contingents. Of confident reassurances that everything is under control. The […]

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Who Controls the Vote? Afghanistan’s Evolving Elections

Martine van Bijlert •

AAN’s latest report, by Martine van Bijlert, provides the first in-depth analysis of the 2009 provincial council elections and presents important clues on what the parliamentary vote on 18 September will look like. It argues that, contrary to what some internationals hope, the upcoming vote will again be messy, fiercely contested and manipulated at all […]

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Losing people in Afghanistan

Martine van Bijlert •

Living in Afghanistan means losing people. It’s a steady trickle. Usually not close enough to uproot your life, but there are all these people whom you have gotten to know over the years, whom you have become fond of, who you have to admire for how they managed to preserve sanity and dignity and humour, […]

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Campaign trail (3): the candidates and their strategies

Martine van Bijlert •

While half of the world is on holiday and the other half is going through the wiki-leaked documents or is wondering how to follow-up on the successes of the Kabul conference, the electoral campaign in Afghanistan is going ahead – at least in parts of the country. The cities are covered in posters and banners, […]

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Kabul Conference (4): Don’t Mention the War

Martine van Bijlert •

The Kabul Conference has ended, the foreign ministers have left, the roads have reopened for traffic. Most Afghans seem unimpressed. Several of the ‘big speeches’, and probably quite a few of the ‘smaller’ ones, impressed upon the audience that it was actions, not words that would ultimately count. They are of course right and I […]

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Kabul Conference (1): Outsmarted and made to pay

Martine van Bijlert •

For weeks I have dismissed the Kabul conference as yet another conference – as something diplomats do, when they don’t know what to do. It was, as usual, preceded by a merry-go-round of pre-meetings and document-drafting-sessions and discrete enquiries (who is coming from your side? are you pledging?), which made it look like simply more […]

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