Gardez, capital of
the southern province of Paktia, was once called
Gard-rez, which means "spreading dust". It is a singularly apt name
for the city, which lies 145 kilometers to the south of
Kabul. A Turkish company is rebuilding the road from
Gardez to Kabul, and soldiers guard the laborers. A
lone soldier sat on a rock at the top of a mountain range that
leads to a flat plain spotted with the occasional
collection of patchwork tents belonging to the Kuchi
tribespeople, and the colorful dresses of their women,
nomads who are largely unregistered to vote in the
elections on October 9, most of them not even
understanding the significance of the elections.
The journey
from Gardez to the town of Chamkani was a
tortuous and turbulent six-hour ride over riverbeds and boulders
accomplished at 20km/h - and this in a four-wheel-drive vehicle that
left one feeling seasick and bruised. Fertile valleys
are sandwiched between parched mountaintops and the
makeshift road snakes through fields of wheat, rice
paddies and miles of pungent cultivated cannabis, grown for
hashish. Along the road there is no sign of electricity
or of any security forces.
Ancient mud irrigation canals gleam in the sun as empty-handed
men lead a line of women wearing brightly colored
dresses and scarves overloaded with bundles of sticks
or straw like giant porcupines. The only
concession to modernity is the occasional four-wheel-drive parked
in front of a cracked mud house. Chamkani lies only
20 minutes from the Pakistani border, and US attack
helicopters fly overhead. Chamkani is listed as a
"high-risk/hostile environment" on the United Nations
"risk map" for Afghanistan.
Gulab
Sha, 52, is one of four election commissioners
for the greater Chamkani region employed by
the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), the organization tasked
by the United Nations and the Afghan
Transitional Islamic Government with running the elections. With his
dark-red skin, long gray beard, white cap and prayer beads,
he did not look like a man who possesses a master's degree
in political science from
Bulgaria. Referring obliquely to the Soviet occupation,
he grinned and said, "There once was a suitable time for
us to study in Bulgaria."
Although unemployed
for the past 10 years, he had been a teacher and
headmaster in the Afghan refugee camps of Pakistan after
his six years of study in Bulgaria during the 1980s were
completed. He has worked for the election since May.
"People don't know the importance of elections," he
explained, an importance he himself did not likely learn
in the universities of communist Bulgaria. "We want to
inform them of the importance of elections so they can
choose the people they like. Elections are a condition
for democracy. People can get their rights this way.
Democracy is freedom. If there is no democracy we will
have anarchy and war."
When asked what democracy
meant to him, he explained, "Democracy is a system of
equality where law rules." Using his hands expressively,
like a politician, he insisted that "elections are
important to have at this time. If we have a strong
central government then security will slowly come. If it
were not for the Bonn transitional government [of Hamid
Karzai] then the fighting would not stop."
Though he admitted that educating a largely
illiterate population of the value of voting was
difficult, he pointed to their successes. "Our target was 12,000
voters registered and we registered 28,000. Twelve thousand
was just an estimate, we didn't have statistics for
the population." He did not acknowledge that some people
might have registered more than once, a possibility that
has led to 129.5% of the estimated number of eligible
voters registering in the central highlands region of
the country, and 133.6% registering in the southeast.
Fifty-six percent of Chamkani's registered
voters are women, a great success in highly traditional
Pashtun society. That so many women have registered in
much of the country is due to the valiant efforts of a
few. Forty-seven percent of women in Paktia are registered. An impressive
figure, but most women are illiterate and will vote for
whomever their husbands tell them to. Only men listen to
radios at night, the main source of information on the
world outside the village.
Shinkai Zahine, head
of the Afghan Women's Education Center, rallied Paktia's
majority Pashtun population to register to vote. She was
the first woman to enter the province's shura
, or council. She benefited from her reputation
as the daughter of a respected tribal leader
and dressed conservatively, using religious language when
she spoke to mobilize female voter registration.
"It's very difficult to change the mentality of
the people," she said, but she appealed to their ethnic
concerns. "I said, 'Look, Pashtuns, you will lose if you
stay like this. You claim you are the majority [in the
country], but if only your men vote you will be the
minority.'" This
is not an approach likely to satisfy feminists, but
it appealed to local concerns. Likewise, some United
Nations workers express unease with UN efforts to register
women by going "door to door saying 'if your
wife votes you get two votes'".
At first
the commission in Chamkani only planned to have 12
voting locations in their region, but to accommodate the
large numbers of registered voters they increased it to
47 locations, each with one box for the ballots.
Gulab explained that a "voting station has to be a
suitable place for 600 people, a mosque, shop, school or
large house". The furthest voting station is 40km
from the center of Chamkani.
Gulab pulled
out of his pocket a sample ballot he used to educate
people. It was a blurry copy of the final version,
which was printed in Canada, with 18 unrecognizable
black-and-white portraits of the candidates, their names illegible
and the symbol or geometric design for their party
equally unclear. There will be somebody to assist voters
who were confused, he explained, not adding that he
could just as likely tell them whom to vote for. Every
voting center is supposed to have one armed policeman,
five armed villagers and six armed people to transport
the ballot boxes to the Chamkani election center.
After voting ends the 47 boxes will be locked
and the number of votes cast in them recorded and they
will then each make their way to the Chamkani voting
center, spending the night there before being taken over
the rocks and rivers to the provincial capital of Gardez
the following day. Here they will be opened and the
number of ballots compared to the number on the box.
Thus in Chamkani alone 47 boxes will be moving
and lightly defended targets heading to the district
office, and then one bonanza collection heading to
Gardez, should anybody be inclined to derail the
elections. And some people have already acted on these
inclinations.
In the month of August there were
21 attacks against election sites, including six bombs
or mines placed next to voter registration locations and
the homes of election officials, and four attacks
against voting locations and homes of staff involved,
with rockets, grenades or stones. Between May 1 and
August 20, the second phase of voter registration, 12
voter registration staff were killed and 33 injured in
attacks.
When pressed as to who most people in
Chamkani might vote for, Gulab remained firm: "We know
whom they like but I cannot say. We are not allowed to
say." When pressed further he smiled obstinately. "I
cannot say because I work for the commission, but at the
time of the elections I can say, I will say, and I will
vote."
TOMORROW: Part 3 - Safe haven
in Bamiyan
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
PART 2: Idealism in a
hostile territory 
pungent cultivated cannabis, grown for
hashish. Along the road there is no sign of electricity
or of any security forces. 
in political science from
Bulgaria. Referring obliquely to the Soviet occupation,
he grinned and said, "There once was a suitable time for
us to study in Bulgaria." 
target was 12,000
voters registered and we registered 28,000. Twelve thousand
was just an estimate, we didn't have statistics for
the population." He did not acknowledge that some people
might have registered more than once, a possibility that
has led to 129.5% of the estimated number of eligible
voters registering in the central highlands region of
the country, and 133.6% registering in the southeast.
registered. An impressive
figure, but most women are illiterate and will vote for
whomever their husbands tell them to. Only men listen to
radios at night, the main source of information on the
world outside the village. 
This
is not an approach likely to satisfy feminists, but
it appealed to local concerns. Likewise, some United
Nations workers express unease with UN efforts to register
women by going "door to door saying 'if your
wife votes you get two votes'". 
o the Chamkani voting
center, spending the night there before being taken over
the rocks and rivers to the provincial capital of Gardez
the following day. Here they will be opened and the
number of ballots compared to the number on the box.
