Background

Subsequent to the Bonn agreement, the United Nations Development Program was given a pivotal role in helping to establish viable governance structures in Afghanistan.  Among these efforts was support to the 2004 Presidential and 2005 Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections.  Both elections were a success with large voter turnout and nationally accepted results.  The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was tasked with political oversight of the elections process, with UNDP holding responsibility for the execution of the 2004 Presidential elections and managing all resource mobilization and donor relations for the 2005 Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections.  UNOPS was the implementing agent for all electoral activities in 2005.

In June 2008, 65 donors met in Paris in order to reiterate the commitments under the Afghan Compact and “underlined the importance of holding of elections in 2009 and 2010 as a crucial step to consolidate democracy for all Afghans.  The international community pledged its strong support to help make the elections free, fair and secure.”

With less than a year to go before the second cycle of elections to be held in Afghanistan in almost three decades, UNDP continues to build capacity of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC); established in 2005 according to Presidential Decree 21 and replacing the former Joint Election Management Body (JEMB) [1]  which managed the electoral process in 2004 and 2005.  The current task of UNDP is to provide advisors to the IEC in order to strengthen capacity to design and implement a sustainable national voter registration programme. This programme will inform and engage the Afghan public and deliver a credible voter register in time for national elections in 2009 and 2010.  UNDP will further support the IEC in the delivery of credible, sustainable electoral processes in 2009 and 2010.  Furthermore it will support the broader electoral framework through capacity building, engagement with and support to civic and voter education, media development, political parties, domestic observation and other emerging issues.

Voter Registration

Due to time constraints and delays in political decisions on when to hold the elections, it was decided in late June the IEC would only be able to conduct an update of the current voter register of 12.5million voters.  Unfortunately a new registration exercise was not feasible and UNDP was tasked with assisting the IEC to develop an update which would allow the current information of registrants to be built upon and eventually establish a register which would be sustainable and meet international standards

The voter registration exercise which commenced on October 6, 2008, in 14 provinces is split into four one month phases.  The exercise will close on February 2, 2009, in order to allow enough time to produce a register and allow for commencement of candidate nomination; to begin in March 2009.  The rationale behind the four phases was principally to ensure the Afghan National Police (ANP) were able to secure all voting registration centres around the country.  Currently the ANP has only 30,000 people which would have diverted essential police manpower from the day to day police work if the voter registration exercise had taken place simultaneously across the country.

Another contributing factor towards the decision to use a phased approach is the climate.  In the central and northern regions, winter tends to arrive by late October, therefore if registration had commenced any later in these regions it would have the potential to disenfranchise many potential registrants in accessing the registration centres.   Finally, due to the decision of having a phased approach, the IEC is able to take note of lessons learned from each phase in order to improve their public outreach campaign and logistical arrangements according to the region.

All Afghans are eligible to register who:

• Have turned 18 since the last registration or will turn 18 before September 2009
• Not registered before
• Returned to Afghanistan since the last registration
• Moved to a new province
• Lost their old registration card

Afghanistan has a potential of approximately 15 million voters.  The voter registration exercise aims to register over 2 million new registrants and perhaps 3 million voters who have either lost their card or have changed provinces since the last election.  Although voters were not attached to any particular polling station in the last cycle of elections, all new registrants and those eligible to register according to the above criteria (in box above) will be assigned to a polling station.  To this end, a proportion of the population will know exactly where they will vote on Election Day, allowing the IEC to prepare more adequately for the supply and transportation of ballot papers.  Those who have previously registered will still be free to choose the polling station where they would like to vote within the province they have registered; however, in the future, the IEC will strive for all registrants to be assigned a polling station so polling station lists will be available and logistics for allocation of ballot papers will be easily facilitated.  The current and future use of biometrical data, such as fingerprinting and facial scanning will further facilitate the IEC to flush out any multiple entrants in the system.

Challenges

The start of the voter registration process exceeded all expectations, and to date no major incidents have been reported.  The process, though, has not been without its challenges and further challenges lie ahead.  One of the major challenges was opening voter registration centres (VRC) on time.  Of the 261 sites included in the first phase, only 204 centres were able to open on the first day.  Within six days of the process, a further 40 were active, signifying that a total of nearly 94% of the centres  are registering potential voters.  The various centres still not open face logistical and security issues.

 Within six days nearly 94% of voter registration centres were operational.

The challenges of security in a country like Afghanistan are always difficult.  Nevertheless, thus far, security incidents during voter registration (VR) have been minimal. The combination of a phased approach and the selection of “green” security permissible provinces in the first phase limited the number of potential incidents.  In later phases security incidents are expected to  increase; especially in the Eastern (Phase 3) and Sothern (Phase 4) regions. At this time, the main challenge facing VR is the coordination of VR activities with supporting security agencies, primarily the Ministry of Interior (MoI).

The Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) voter operations centre (VROC) was set up on the day VR commenced (6 Oct 08). Had it been set up at least a month earlier, many coordination issues could have been solved (e.g. coordination of police escorts and air movements). The lack of an IEC VROC or a field operations representative at the MoI’s table-top exercise (TTX) on September 25, 2008, was a missed opportunity to tighten coordination between the IEC and supporting security actors (MoI, MoD, NDS and ISAF). MoI plans to conduct a TTX prior to each VR Phase (the next is scheduled for October 16, 2008). The TTXs are important in order to capture and implement lessons learned from previous phases after a thorough action review process.  Failure to improve coordination between the IEC and the MoI will have serious consequences as VR progresses into more unstable provinces in the remaining phases.

In addition, communication is proving quite difficult in the Afghan context.  Communication between HQ and Provincial Electoral Officers (PEO) and between PEOs and District Field Coordinators (DFCs) has proved difficult.  As a result, the figures of the registration process are not yet perceived to be a true reflection of the figures on the ground.  Nevertheless on October 16, 2008, the IEC reported 215,610 people had registered to vote in the 14 provinces covered under Phase I.  The provinces of Kunar, Takhar, Badakshan and Kapisa reported the highest turnout rates due to a combination of support from local government and effective public outreach campaign.  According to the IEC, the majority were reportedly first-time registrants and an estimated 27% were women.

A woman poses for her photograph during voter registration

Gender

Of the approximately 250,000 registrants less than a third were women.  The figures to date are also much lower than they were for both men and women in the 2004 and 2005 registration efforts.  There are a few provinces with a higher than average turnout, and research is being conducted as to the possible reasons why to see if lessons can be learned to apply to the next ten provinces to enter the second phase of voter registration in November.  The low turnout for women is a disappointment, as many efforts to increase female participation were put into effect.  As a direct result of the low turnout figures for women so far, the campaign to attract women to the voter registration centres is being stepped up.  It is hoped that at the beginning of November a religious decree will be issued by the Ministry of Haj which will encourage all women to register and, more importantly, for male relatives to allow their women to register.  Other initiatives will be to increase the number of radio spots on women’s participation and to work in close coordination with religious and community leaders to encourage and increase awareness of the importance of women’s participation in the process.

Improving participation of women and men in the voter registration process is key to the success of the overall process.  Apart from the pertinent security challenges which face Afghans, apathy towards the election process is increasingly evident.  This concern is echoed by all stakeholders involved in the process.  As a consequence, the interest in the voter registration exercise by Afghans will set the first benchmark as to possible participation in the election process due to enter its first cycle in September 2009.  The holding of second elections are always expected to draw less attention than the first, however the success of a second election will definitively illustrate that the Afghan people have progressed from a transitional government to a society capable of embracing the ideals of democracy.  Nevertheless, true indicators of a fully fledged democracy will require more than successful elections and will necessitate a commitment by both the future government of Afghanistan and the continued support of the international community  to work together far beyond the upcoming electoral process.