Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: fraud

fraud

Elections 2014 (54): Provincial council results creaking under the weight of manipulation

Martine van Bijlert •

The provincial council vote is finally over. It has been fully overshadowed by the drawn-out and contentious presidential election – as could be expected and has been the case in the past as well. Attention dwindled as election fatigue crept in, which meant that its separate audit and complaints processes were almost exclusively followed by […]

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Elections 2014 (49): Still deadlock, make or break

Kate Clark •

It has become difficult to write about the Afghan elections, not because nothing happens, but because it rarely amounts to anything significant enough to move things on. There are talks between the candidates, press conferences with little news, an audit nearing completion, phone calls from the American president, rumours and unease. The optimism of the […]

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Elections 2014 (36): Some key documents

AAN Team •

As an annex to AAN’s election reporting, please find below the text of two letters that the Abdullah camp sent to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on 25 June 2014, as well as the IEC’s answer the next day (annex 1) and the transcript to some of the main recordings that have been released by […]

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Elections 2014 (35): A delay, an audit and a change of tone

Kate Clark • Martine van Bijlert •

The Independent Electoral Commission’s delay of the preliminary results of the presidential run-off, from 2 to 7 July 2014, and its decision to audit almost 2000 polling stations that show possible signs of ballot stuffing, seems to have signalled a change in the electoral mood. Whereas days before the commission still showed signs of intending […]

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Elections 2014 (33): ‘Amarkhel Gate’ – sheep, tape, resignation

Kate Clark •

The resignation of the head of the secretariat of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Zia ul-Haq Amarkhel, may just have saved the election – if it brings Dr Abdullah back into the process. In support of his demand (one of several) for Amarkhel to go, Abdullah had ceased cooperating with the IEC and his supporters […]

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Elections 2014 (30): Some initial reflections on E-Day II

Thomas Ruttig •

The counting of second round votes from the presidential elections is still under way in much of Afghanistan, although results are now trickling in from some polling stations. Meanwhile, everyone is trying to assess how well the second round went: the impact of security incidents, level of fraud and, especially importantly, how big the turnout […]

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Elections 2014 (29): The second round election day in snapshots from the provinces

AAN Team •

How did the second round election day go? After our collection of voices from the provinces on the day before the vote (read here) as well as on the first round election day (see here), we continued to listen to our Afghan friends, analysts and acquaintances across the country. We asked them if they had been as eager to vote as […]

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2014 Elections (21): A closer look at the IECC’s performance and the challenges it faced

Qayoom Suroush •

For the first time since elections were held in post-Taleban Afghanistan, the country’s Independent Electoral Complaints Commission (IECC) has held a series of open sessions addressing electoral complaints. The concept was, in principle, welcomed by independent observers, candidates’ agents and civil society, but the process itself was often confused and rushed and sometimes overly bureaucratic. […]

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Elections 2014 (14): Why two thirds of Andar’s polling centres may have never opened

Fazal Rahman •

Andar district, which is located along Highway 1 after Ghazni city and also straddles the main road to Paktia, has long been a stronghold for the Taleban. The district is home to the Nur-ul-Madaris madrassa where a number of key Taleban leaders once studied and was one of the first places where the insurgency reappeared […]

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Elections 2014 (11): How the Hazaras voted in Bamyan

Qayoom Suroush •

Initial observations appear to show that Dr Abdullah has won the majority of the vote in Bamyan – with Ashraf Ghani so far second by a large margin. Bamyan is important – a province which is generally secure and has a highly motivated electorate. It is also the one province with an overwhelmingly ethnic Hazara […]

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Elections 2014 (10): Paktia – where rain helped the ‘king making’ voters

Pakteen Ibrahimi •

A week after the election, AAN looks at how Paktia province, with the southeastern region’s centre Gardez, fared in the elections and after. Like Kandahar, Paktia returns a mixed picture: a large turnout in the city and some district centres, but far less participation already at the city borders and in other districts. A specific […]

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Elections 2014 (8): Kandahar, a centre-districts divide and the weakening of the tribal factor

Borhan Osman •

Election day has already been praised for the high voter turnout and the relatively peaceful atmosphere it went down in. Pictures from Kandahar, a province perceived as notoriously insecure, surprised many, showing men and women lining up in long queues to vote. A look at the micro-level, however, reveals a more nuanced picture. Borhan Osman, […]

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