As Afghanistan prepared for this highly anticipated election last week, former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah emerged as a legitimate threat to incumbent President Hamid Karzai – who has fallen out of favor with many Afghans, as well as Western leaders — and news media portrayed a run-off election as plausible.

But as results trickle in from last Thursday’s vote, in which some 7 million ballots were cast, the outcome remains unclear. Images of inked Afghan fingers gave way to claims of widespread fraud and intimidation. As the vote count continues, reports on the results have been contradictory.

For the full results of last week’s News Hunt, read their blog summarizing media coverage, check out the top rated stories and browse a full listing of all stories posted on the topic.

Explore our complete coverage of the election and war in Afghanistan.

Photo: Scott Bohlinger

Scott Bohlinger is a political analyst and writer who has lived in Afghanistan since 2006. He works for a non-governmental organization in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan and has traveled extensively in the Middle East.

One of my favorite pastimes of late has been talking to people about who they’re voting for and why. Politics is universal, but political thoughts are heavily shaped and molded by cultural contexts. Whatever people’s education levels, they get the concept of political participation and voting, and I’ve found that they reject voting only insofar as they don’t think the vote will be respected.

The big difference I encounter here in Afghanistan is in how people talk about politics and their candidates, which seems surprising to somebody from the U.S., France or Iran.

In Afghanistan, with its multiplicity of figures in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of alliances and betrayals, the political landscape often appears inscrutable to the uninitiated. The reasons for these shifting currents are there, although outsiders don’t always properly appreciate them.

People who told me they would vote against Karzai because he was supported by former warlord Abdurrashid Dostum all of a sudden appeared teary-eyed alongside the road to watch his convoy a few days later when he returned from Turkey. The cause was simple: Their rational analysis of the pros and cons of his rule had been replaced by their emotional attachment to a man who had brought relative stability to this party of the country, when the rest was in chaos.

Photo: Scott Bohlinger

One day, while driving to the gym, my driver and I were looking at all the campaign posters and related activity in town, poking fun and sharing opinions. He didn’t have much definitive to say about any of the current contenders, but instead went on at length about some strongman whom he particularly liked during the Soviet occupation. The next day, he had a completely different story. Evidently, my driver had decided to throw his weight behind Karzai. Suddenly, it was Karzai who could do no wrong. “Karzai built everything in this country after the war — he’s honest, clean and has personality integrity.”

The argument against Karzai is that he hasn’t done enough and doesn’t possess any of those qualities, but I didn’t see the point in arguing that. So I asked my driver how he had been convinced of this. He must have had a conversation with his friends over qalyan (sheesha or water pipes) or heard the argument from an akhund (priest), I thought. His response was “No, that’s just the way things are.”

This is one story, but it typifies many others encounters that I’ve had. During a fast food break in Samangan, a man sat across from me while I was eating my kebab and extolled the virtues of a previous regime that he particularly liked for three reasons: 1) you could leave your door unlocked, 2) there was no theft and 3) so-and-so distributed swift and equitable justice.

It annoys me as a Westerner because I feel it sets up unrealistic expectations of leaders and therefore just perpetuates the cycle of violence. But these narratives help people structure the world around them to create meaning — even if they are myths. In Afghanistan, political power is often understood and explained through myths about individuals rather than through the specific issues they stand for.

- Scott Bohlinger

Read more about his experience overseas in his blog, Embedded in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s election is coming up on Thursday. Here in the northeastern part of the country, conducting an orderly election will be a difficult task, to say the least. This region, due to the high mountains and its shared border with Pakistan, is a well-known insurgent haven. Our enemies inhabit the high ground and getting up there to deal with them is tough.

Nearly every engagement here involves the insurgents shooting down at us from above. When that hasn’t been the case, the enemy has been shooting at us from inside a village on the other side of a valley. Fighting an enemy while he’s inside a village presents its own set of concerns.

Conducting day-to-day operations here is difficult. Holding an election here against the wishes of our numerous enemies will certainly be interesting. Not only are we sure to see more attacks, but we’re also sure to have less support in the form of air since those air assets are likely to be needed everywhere else as well.

Coalition forces just don’t have the numbers to control much of the vast hinterland in this northeastern part of the country. Those air assets in the form of attack and reconnaissance helicopters and fighter aircraft are a vital part of how we get things turned in our favor once the shooting begins, but we’ll make do with or without them.

Generally speaking, if we don’t have a paved road leading to an area, we don’t control it. Geographically, the province sits in the middle of a mountain range. The mountains are interspersed with valleys carved by streams fed by melting snow runoff. The only flat areas you’ll see around here are the areas around the streams. Those flat areas vary in width from a kilometer to maybe 10 meters across. Given the challenging topography, road building is a difficult task. Where roads have been put in, bases and security have followed. Without a paved road, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are regular, which prevents a strong U.S. presence.

We focus on the larger population centers, which are not surprisingly generally located in the larger valleys. Of the many small valleys branching off from the larger ones, we control the terrain at most a couple of kilometers in. Far down into some of these valleys, we haven’t had Americans go in years. This fact hasn’t stopped the unnamed, unseen planners on high from deciding to put election polling sites in some of these places. Exactly how we’re supposed to secure a place we don’t ever go, in addition to all the other sites in our normal area of operations, is a question which has occurred to many of us in recent weeks.

Thankfully, as the election creeps closer, reality is beginning to set in, and numerous planned polling stations are not going to be opened. We’ll consolidate some, and others will just not be available, necessitating the local people taking a longer trip to vote. It will be the courageous family that decides to take a trip down an unsecured road while bearing voter registration cards. The insurgents aren’t always in the mountains…they do come down to the roads to conduct checkpoints, often with an IED in the road between us and them to prevent our arrival in a timely manner to deal with them.

For an election you need ballots. It’s Afghanistan’s election, so U.S. forces aren’t supposed to escort or handle the ballots. As embedded trainers with the Afghan National Army (ANA), my unit is exempt from this guidance. And so, on our way to pick up the ballots yesterday, we got in a nice little enemy engagement, which resulted in one of our trucks getting a tire shot out, two antennas blasted off and a round of indeterminate caliber (we’re still debating what size it had to have been) cracking up our windshield. Armor is a good thing to have when the element of surprise is not on your side. The firefight was a nice way to welcome our recently-arrived replacements to the joys and adventures of life in Afghanistan.

We should have good security for most of the ballots and polling sites, but a few of those ballots are going to be headed a little further up the road into country we don’t venture…and are not going to venture for this election. The Afghan National Police (ANP) refuses to escort the ballots around here without our help, and in this case we’re not helping.

If not the Americans or the ANA or the ANP, who’s going to take the ballots up there and provide security for the election, you ask? Well, in Afghanistan, when the official government representatives aren’t doing the job, the responsibility falls to the traditional power brokers, i.e. the local elders. Turning over official election ballots to citizens who hold no official capacity may not be how things were drawn up by the 10-pound heads who wanted to hold an election in a war-torn country in the midst of raging insurgency, but as someone in the news stated recently, we shouldn’t let perfection be the enemy of progress.

If even the elders can’t guarantee the security of the ballots and the ballots end up getting burned in a bonfire in the square next to the village mosque — well, at least in that case, the insurgents have clearly shown themselves to be destructive agents and enemies of their peoples’ freedom of choice. In the past, just to make a point, we’ve dropped off humanitarian aid like schoolbooks in places where we thought it would get burned by the insurgents before the local people could get their hands on it. Something similar may end up happening with a small portion of the ballots.

However imperfect, Afghanistan will have an election on August 20 and new elected officials will take up their posts sometime shortly thereafter. Undoubtedly, some of our enemies will abuse the election process and the general lack of security in this region to get themselves elected. But I reckon we’re on the right track if they’re playing by our rules and participating in the process, whatever their ultimate motives may be.

I’m just thankful I get to be here to see how this thing turns out.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

On Tuesday, with the election two days away and the campaign winding down, the Taliban launched a series of attacks on the capital city of Kabul. A suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy on the outskirts of the city, killing at least seven people and wounding another 50. Two mortar rounds also landed near the presidential palace.

U.S. President Barack Obama insists winning the war in Afghanistan is vital to America’s security interests, and a free and fair election no doubt would help that cause. But security concerns remain front and center.

Kimberly Marten, a professor of political science at Columbia University’s Barnard College, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the impending vote, U.S. strategy ahead of the election and the role of warlords.

Read what a U.S. Marine embedded trainer with the Afghan National Army had to say about the atmosphere ahead of elections: Securing the vote in volatile northeastern Afghanistan

Nelson Mandela, the former head of the African National Congress who helped bring down the white supremacist system of apartheid, was one of an estimated 23 million South Africans registered to vote.

The current leader of the ANC, Jacob Zuma — who was imprisoned for 10 years alongside Mandela — is widely expected to emerge victorious. However, analysts say the ANC will struggle to win the two-thirds majority that it has won in the past.

Read more about South Africa’s power players.

YouTube user matlosana interviewed South Africans as they headed to the voting booths:

Zukiswa Wanner, a South African writer, notes the impressive turnout:

In 2004 when I voted in South Africa’s last presidential elections, I strolled at the voting station and less than 30 minutes later, I was out.

[...] The polls said it, the energy prior to this election highlighted it, but now I am seeing it for myself – today, it is different. It is only 7.45 and already there is a sizeable crowd at the voting station. I decide to just go indoors, get my ID and go and vote immediately to avoid spending my whole day waiting to vote. When I get back to the voting station, the line is already snaking round the corner and a good 300metres long and it is getting longer. It is like its 1994 all over again.

As indicative of my working class neighbourhood, there are people of all races. In front of me is a coloured couple and behind me is an Indian lady. A few feet from me is a white boy wearing a red t-shirt with a heart in ANC colours reading ‘Show your Love for the ANC’ but that is the only person wearing anything that hints at sloganeering. The line is moving slowly initially but I will not give up my place in line for a possibility of a shorter line later which might not come to pass. While in line I receive SMSs, many from the majority ANC party telling me to Vote ANC.

[...]I go out outside and feel a rush of emotion and patriotism for this one moment in five years that democracy allows most of my fellow South Africans to speak up for the one minute that we are behind the booth.

A blogger at “Socialyz” says that voting has gone relatively smoothly, with a few minor scuffles:

Well I’ve done my bit today. I woke up late, went to an election station and stood in a massive queue for about 10 minutes before deciding I’d come back later. Last time around I voted towards the end of the day and simply walked in and out. My general perception this time around is that there will be a larger voter turnout than the previous Election in South Africa.

Ink marks the vote in South Africa.

That’s a great thing. I find there is much more awareness this time and my peers are more excited and more motivated to vote. Iv’e been scanning the papers for initial reactions, and other than a few scare stories of villagers being told to vote ANC and ballot papers being strewn across a street someplace, it all seems to be going along smoothly. It must be rememberd that this is a massive logistical task and there will be the odd hiccup here and there. As a citizen, I’m happy with how it has been conducted so far.

Now we wait for the results.

Blogger “Jonathan Carter” has become more enthused about voting as challengers to the ANC have gained more traction:

Today is the national and provincial elections in South Africa. I just made my vote, and it’s the first time I ever voted. It was supposed to be the second time I voted. I didn’t vote last time, not because of apathy so much as that I knew it wouldn’t have made so much of a difference who I voted for.

This year it’s quite different, the ruling ANC party has a break-away faction called COPE, and it’s quite possible that the ANC might not get a majority (2/3rds) vote. The DA has also gained lots of momentum since the last elections, and it’s quite possible that they may win the provincial elections in the Western Cape province. If you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m not a fan of the ANC. While they have done a lot for our country that I will always be grateful for, I am also disgusted at what it has become and how it is run.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Axel Bührmann under a Creative Commons license.

There are more than 800,000 polling stations in India, and over 700 million eligible voters. One of those voters, 23-year-old blogger Smriti Srivastava, shares images from her polling station in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh:

Smriti also wrote about her voting experience and of the range of people she encountered at the polls: 

Indian blogger and 23-year-old voter Smriti Srivastava.

It is election time and I just returned after casting my vote. This was the first time I voted and certainly isn’t going to be my last. It was an amazing experience though, standing there in the queue and looking at all the faces, young and old…rich and poor. Just there to exercise their franchise… even after knowing that it may or may not make a difference… Yet they were all there. 

I stay in a very “posh” colony, with beautiful houses and people with a lot of money. The area around it is completely opposite. It consists of this small belt called THE YAPRAL VILLAGE. That is where most of our household helpers and workers for petty jobs reside. Its like two sides of the same coin.  

It was a great feeling standing between people of two completely different backgrounds. A housewife was jovially talking to her house-maid, and asking her if she needs water, and if she is casting her vote for the “RIGHT CANDIDATE”…whoever that was. 

The lines for males and females was separate, and no one seemed to grumble about the heat. I saw a lot of smiling faces. Maybe they hope for change and vote with the belief that their votes matter. These were some of the daily wage hourly paid labourers, who left their work for one day and came to stand in the queue and losing a few precious hours of earnings. Yet they came to vote.  

It may be flawed, it may be rigged, but it matters to me that I did what I was supposed to do.  I stood in line with people of various ages, speaking various languages, having various dreams… doing one single thing. Exercising their right. 

Also, the “All India People’s Manifesto” is a project asking Indian voters to tell the next government what they want for the country. Watch responses here. 

Blogger “Souju” writes from the city of Hyderabad, praising the turnout and hoping for improved voting technology: 

What a fun it has been to cast my vote today. After debates, arguments and frustration on politics and our political leaders finally India started voting today. I was amazed to see the turn out. People were in long queues. I saw my old friends in the queue. Finally, it was my turn to exercise my right and of course, duty. Polling agents and officers were very cool and helpful. I cast my vote and came out. It was a great feeling.

Hopefully, next time we will have bio-metric cards for elections and the confusion of voters is lessened. When other developed nations use our IT professionals’ knowledge to build an effective electoral system for their elections why are we still lagging behind – only our next Indian Govt. who gets elected have answers for it. 

Another blogger, “Arby K,” chose not to vote, protesting India’s electoral system: 

When the next national elections come, in five years (hopefully) from now, these problems will be as true and valid as they are now. The political parties that form the legislature have a sufficient voter base to ensure their long term survival. Given the fractured nature of verdicts, it is likely that small parties will play a key role in government formation and provide good returns to their voters. However, at a national level this leads to uncertainty and instability.

These problems have now been ingrained into the current electoral system and it is unlikely that we will have a stable and confident government.  EVER.

In the long run, this augurs badly for the nation - to have unstable governments and indecisive leadership follow one after the other. It may seem okay for the next five years. But will you be okay with it for the next 20-30 years when you or your kids will have to bear the heat, as we compete with the rest of the world?

Should I compromise on my long term future by procrastinating electoral reform to make the Indian democracy effective?

By choosing to vote, I will be endorsing the current system of elections. I will be settling to meet my short term objectives sacrificing the long term ones.

So, I choose not to endorse an electoral system which brings unstable governments, indecisive leadership and  regional fragmentation of the nation.

I choose not to vote, till a day where we can have stable, decisive and a united government.

Read about the history of Indian elections and the growing influence of its smaller parties: Small parties are big players in India’s upcoming elections

Ghanians text results of the election.

Ghana’s presidential election will see a second round after both candidates failed to win a majority of votes in Sunday’s election.

Voter turnout was high, at 69.5 percent, and some have called the peaceful election a “beacon of hope for Africa.”

The runoff between ruling party leader Nana Akufo-Addo and opposition candidate John Atta Mills is scheduled for Dec. 28.

For more on Ghana’s election, see what a Worldfocus contributing blogger had to say: Race tightens as ballots are tallied in Ghana.

Ghanian blogger “Mercy” writes that she is proud of the fair and free election and of the civic engagement of Ghanians, expressing support for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The “MobileActive” blog discusses the use of text messaging, which played a role in monitoring the election.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), the opposition party, posts a blog entry expressing gratitude to supporters and the Ghanian media and asks for restraint on the part of threatening security organizations.

Ethan Zuckerman of the “My heart’s in Accra” blog writes that the ruling party is currently in the lead, and if Akufo-Addo emerges victorious in the runoff, he will face a divided government.

Blogger “Oluniyi David Ajao” asks, “Does Ghana exist?” and argues that the international media has ignored the Ghana election and only covers violence and starvation in Africa.

Watch a video of vote counting in Odododiodio, Ghana, from YouTube user hdnrp:

Photo courtesy of Flickr user bbcworldservice under a Creative Commons license.

People lined up to vote in São Paulo, Brazil.

Associate Producer Channtal Fleischfresser discusses the voting process in her native Brazil.

Brazil likes to keep things simple. None of this “get out the vote” business.

That’s because voting is mandatory for all citizens over age 18. In fact, even people living abroad are subject to fines if they do not report to their local Brazilian Embassy on election day to explain their absence from the polls.

To make sure no one has an excuse not to vote, elections are held on Sunday, when people have the day off. But that means you have to spend the weekend in town during elections. Many of those who live in big cities and like to skip town on the weekends have developed an unusual compromise. Instead of registering to vote in the city where they live, many people - my parents, for instance - register in the community where they retreat on the weekends.

In a sense, their vote counts more than it would in the big city, but on a decidedly smaller scale. Last Sunday, rather than vote for Gilberto Kassab, the incumbent mayor of São Paulo, my parents helped elect Filipinho, an agricultural consultant in the town of Cunha, nestled in the coastal mountain region between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states.

While this mayor may have less influence, their vote in this town of about 23,000 people counted much more than it would have in São Paulo, a city of roughly 11 million people.

Compulsory voting presents its own set of obstacles, such as campaign corruption and candidates paying for votes, and it contrasts with the American notion of optional political engagement. But in a country plagued by a limited public education system and where, on average, students don’t stay in school past age 14, an optional voting system would ensure that only the most educated - and most wealthy - made their way to the polls.

This way, democracy is the job of the many, not the few.

- Channtal Fleischfresser

Photo courtesy of R. Motti under a Creative Commons license.

But many countries have replaced paper ballots with electronic buttons and still others have taken their elections online.

In deciding how they will vote, countries weigh the speed, accuracy, anonymity and security of various technologies.

For some nations, electronic voting machines (EVMs) represent a chance at heightened accuracy, as well as increased participation due to accessibility for illiterate voters. Others retain the traditional paper and pencil, concerned that EVMs will open doors for hackers and put the democratic process at risk.

See our other coverage of the 2008 U.S. election and its global impact. The slideshow below shows voting technology in several countries around the world.

Here are some sample ballots [PDF]: Latvia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Brazil, Albania and Congo.

Sample ballots courtesy of The ACE Electoral Knowledge Network under a Creative Commons license. All photos courtesy of Flickr users under a Creative Commons license. Find Worldfocus on Flickr here and contribute your internationally-themed pictures to our collection.

Elections update

El Salvador’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE for its initials in Spanish), opened the 2009 election process this week. The TSE officially set the dates of January 18, 2009 for elections of mayors and deputies to the National Assembly, and March 15, 2009 for the presidential election. Candidates for president can register between now and January 13, 2009. The TSE announced there would be no reforms in El Salvador’s electoral system between now and the elections.

The TSE has been criticized by the FMLN for opening the election cycle without taking into account the outcome of the 2007 census. The FMLN believes the census will require reallocating deputies to the National Assembly with more deputies being allocated to the urban areas of San Salvador where the FMLN has greater strength.

Another criticism of the TSE has been a change to allow vote tally sheets to be submitted without a seal and signature from the local election officials. The FMLN introduced legislation to repeal this change in the election procedures, but the measure was defeated by the conservative coalition in the National Assembly led by ARENA. The elimination of these requirements has led observers to worry about the possibility of fraud in the upcoming elections.

To read more, visit the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Associated thumbnail courtesy of the United Nations.