Indhold

I kulissen ved Afghanistan-valg

18/08/2009

Fact Sheet on UNDP support to Afghanistan Elections

Presidential and Provincial Council elections in Afghanistan on 20 August 2009


Background

•    The Presidential and Provincial Council polls will be held on 20 August 2009.

•   Afghans are in the lead in the 2009 Presidential and Provincial Council elections. In the previous Presidential election in 2005 was organized by a mixed electoral management body with national and international commissioners under the Bonn Agreement.

•    There are 41 Presidential candidates –two are women. However, with the vice presidential candidates and provincial council candidates, there are more women candidates in this round than previously.

•    3194 Afghans are competing for 544 Provincial Council seats

•    Afghanistan has set up independent institutions to run its own elections
–   the Independent Election Commission is managing the electoral process,
–   the Electoral Complaints Commission has been set up as an independent body to adjudicate challenges to candidacy and to hear complaints.
–   the Electoral Media Commission has been set up by the IEC and will monitor fair reporting by the media on election issues and candidates and address complaints about media reporting,
–   political rights monitoring conducted by UNAMA with the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission will report on the electoral process and ensure that all Afghans are able to exercise their political rights, particularly women

•    The plan is to open around 7,000 polling centres with nearly 29,000 stations across the country. This list will be refined when security reports are finalized. 165,000 polling staff has been employed to adminster the electoral processes. 34 million ballot papers and nearly 100,000 ballot boxes have been dispatched to the polling stations. (There are two elections each of which has had 18m ballot papers printed which includes contingency supplies.)

•    Some polling stations are in places so remote that ballots are being delivered by donkeys.

UN/UNDP support
•    UN Security Council Resolution 1806 of February 2008 calls for the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) to lead international civilian efforts on the Afghan elections.

•    On behalf of the UN family in Afghanistan UNDP is coordinating international support for the electoral process and implementing the technical and financial assistance to the Independent Electoral Commission.

•    The UNDP/ELECT (Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow) project is the main avenue through which the UN and larger international community is operationalizing its support to the electoral process. The budget for 2009 is $225million to support the presidential and provincial council elections. Donor contributions have been fully received.


•    This project supports Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) in several areas to ensure the IEC becomes an increasingly self-reliant institution with a post elections plan, a continuing mandate and, access to financing and the management structure, staffing and inventory needed to better maintain its electoral capacity.

•    Involving a wide range of stakeholders in the electoral process,  ELECT is also working with the police, agents of candidates, domestic observers and the media to ensure each play a more positive role in the electoral process according to their mandates and a conducive environment is in place for the conduct of elections.

•    ELECT provides project design and management, mobilization of donor funding, activity coordination, the channeling of funds for electoral support, and reporting.

About ELECT’s support to the IEC

Voter registration

The ELECT project began with the planning and implementation support to the IEC for the voter registration process in July 2008. This phase of voter registration  started in October 2008 and concluded in February 2009. The IEC hoped to register two million new voters but in fact more than doubled that goal.

Civic Education on issues such as transparency, roles and responsibilities of government and citizens, voter education, and information about the electoral process through:
-    Face-to-face activities including workshops, seminars, and small meetings with influential community members
-    Mobile theatre
-    Radio programs
-    Public service announcements
-    Posters and other information materials

Voter helpline
The IEC has set up a voter helpline to provide ready answers to questions from potential voters on issues ranging from information about the voting date, location of polling centres, poll procedures, fraud, secrecy of ballots, and information about candidates. Stock questions and answers have been provided by the IEC to 60 operators who staff the phones from 9am to midnight, seven days a week, in three shifts and answer on average, 35,000 calls a week.

Electoral safeguards
-    Electoral Complaints Commission
-    Media monitoring and training
-    Media Commission
-    Security planning and police training


Electoral Observers

UNDP/ELECT provides a specialist technical advisor to Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) to support its training, deployment, data gathering and reporting responsibilities and has provided a substantial  grant to the organization for its observation activities.  ELECT has also subcontracted the National Democratic Institute (NDI) to conduct a nationwide cascade style training programme for party and candidate agents. FEFA, the principal domestic observer body expects to field up to 7,800 local observers covering every province whose number will be complemented by other domestic observer groups. In addition candidate and party agents could number over 200,000.

20. August afholdes der præsident- og provinsvalg i Afghanistan. Ved præsidentvalget opstiller mere end 40 kandidater, inklusive to kvinder, mens der til provinsvalget opstiller mere end 3.000 kandidater. Valget er det første siden 1970 ledet af Afghanerne selv gennem den Uafhængige Valg Kommision (UVK). Forrige valg i 2005 blev foretaget under ledelse af det internationale samfund. 


Photo: Amadine Roche (UNDP/ELECT)

”Nu har vi muligheden i Afghanistan for at styrke ikke kun de institutionelle forsamlinger, men også andre statslige institutioner for bedre at kunne leverer basale tjenesteydelser til indbyggerne og dermed forbedre kvaliteten af deres liv og adgangen til retfærdighed”, siger Manoj Basnyat, UNDPs Country Director i Afghanistan.

UVK har autoriteten og ansvaret for at administrere og overvåge valget, mens UNDP gennem sit ELECT program (Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow) koordinerer samarbejdet med FN partnere og den internationale støtte til valget. UNDP bidrager ligeledes med tekniksk støtte til UVK med henblik på vælgerregistrering, medieovervågning og uddannelse af civilsamfundet. Målet med UNDPs arbejde er at dele positive erfaringer fra andre lande, for at styrke de afganske institutioner og bidrage med den nødvendige viden til at sikre gennemførelsen af et frit og demokratisk valg.
Et større forventet fremmøde på valgdagen understreger vigtigheden af UVK og UNDPs arbejde med at gøre Afghanerne opmærksomme på omstændighederne omkring valghandlingen. UVK har i den anledning indraget sports stjerner og civile undervisere til at organisere ’prøve’ valgsteder rundt omkring i landet. Gennem dette initiativ håber UVK at give vælgerne en indblik i hvordan den realle valghandling kommer til at foregå.


Photo: Amandine Roche/UNDP Elect
A mock polling station is used to educate voters
in Daikundi, Afghanistan.

Et eksempel på et sådant ’prøve’ valgsted foregik i den afghanske kvinde Zakias hjem i Gurwana landsbyen i Bamiyan provinser. Heri deltog omkring 25 kvindelige vælgere og tre civile undervisere. Når hver kvinde trådte ind i valglokalet blev hendes valgkort tjekket, samt pegefingeren på hendes venstre hånd, for at sikre at hun ikke havde stemt tidligere på dagen. Efterfølgende blev hendes venstre pegefinger dyppet i blæk og to ’kunstige’ valgblanketter blev stemplet og overleveret. Gennem denne simple øvelse kender kvinder rundt omkring i Afghanistan nu til valgprocessen, og er klar til at stemme på den egentlige valgdag. 

”Vi ønsker selv at vælge hvem vi stemmer på, og ikke lade vores mænd tage beslutningen for os” siger Zakia. ”Vi deltager i valget i håb om af forandre vores eget liv og vores børns”
Andre civile undervisere arbejder med at gøre mullaherne opmærksomme på vigtigheden i, at religiøse ledere hjælper til med at opfordre folk til at stemme.

”Indbyggerne i min provins er bekymrede for sikkerhedssituationen, men jeg vil opfordre dem til at stemme fordi det står i den hellige Koran, at man skal rådføre sig med hinanden for at foretage de rigtige valg” siger Khiyal Ahmad, en mullah fra Logar provinsen som deltager i et træningsprogram organiseret af civile undervisere. ”Jeg vil hjælpe med at give dem den korrekte information. Jeg vil opfordre indbyggerne i min provins og i landsbyerne til at møde op og stemme, så vi kan finde den bedste kandidat”.