Afghanistan 2014: Election Observations 1

Afghanistan 2014: Election Observations 1. OVERVIEW

On April 5, 2014, a nine-person observa on team, accredited by Afghanistan’s Independent Elec on Commission (IEC) and composed of USIP na onal and interna onal staff , travelled to 18 polling centers in the Nangarhar, Kunduz and Kabul (the outer districts) provinces to observe Afghan ci zens cas ng ballots for the presiden al and provincial council elec ons. USIP’s Vice President of South Central Asia Programs Andrew Wilder, Afghanistan Country Director USIP 2014 Afghan Elections International Observation Team, Kabul, Shahmahmood Miakhel, Program April 5 2014 (Rahmatullah Amiri). Offi cer Lillian Dang and The Liaison Offi ce’s (TLO) researcher, Lucile Mar n travelled to the district of Shakardara outside of Kabul to observe vo ng at three polling centers. USIP Senior Program Offi cer Casey Johnson and a TLO research offi cer travelled to Khak-e Jabar, a rural district in eastern Kabul province about an hour’s drive from the capital, to observe vo ng at four male polling sta ons. Three male USIP staff observed polling at 16 sta ons in Jalalabad City. One female na onal staff observed at three female sta ons in two polling centers located in Kunduz city. 2. OBSERVATION AREAS

Shakardara is a rural, mul -ethnic district about an hour north of Kabul. Three accredited USIP interna onal staff , and one TLO interna onal researcher observed vo ng at 20 male and female polling sta ons at three polling centers: Shakardara High School; Dara-e- Shakardara; and Buyaza. The polling centers opened at 7:00am, 7:30am and 9:00am respec vely. The reason given for the later opening of the Buyaza polling center was due to the wet weather preven ng IEC staff from travelling to the center as well as many security checkposts en route. The observa on team travelled to the Buyaza polling center around 1:30pm and had to cross s ll fl ooded roadways to reach the center.

Voter turnout: The team travelled to the Shakardara High School polling center in Shahi Mardan, which is a central market area of Shakardara district, about one hour north of Kabul city. The team also travelled to polling centers in the outlying areas of Shakardara district, Dara-e-Shakardara and Buyaza. The team found generally good turnout at all three polling centers of male voters. However, turnout in two of the female polling centers was very low, perhaps due to the wet weather and remote loca on of the la er two polling centers. Arriving around 11:10am at the Shakardara High School polling center, the team observed the following turnout fi gures: 592 men at two of four sta ons; 406 women at all three sta ons. Arriving around 12:10pm at the Dara-e- Shakardara polling center, the team A FEFA domestic observer at a polling station in Shakaradara, Kabul province, April 5, 2014 (Lillian Dang). observed the following turnout fi gures: 702 men at all four sta ons; 94 women at all three sta ons. Arriving around 1:30pm at the Buyazar polling center, the team observed the following turnout fi gures: 996 men at all three sta ons; 25 women at the three sta ons.

Security: The team observed the presence of security personnel (police and Na onal Directorate of Security, or NDS) inside the compound of all three of the polling centers. However, security checks or body search procedures of individuals entering the polling center were ad hoc. The male observa on team was searched at the Shakardara High School and Buyaza polling centers. The female team was not searched at any of the polling centers, and observed ad hoc procedures at all three. At Shakardara High School, male and female voters entered the compound through a common entrance. Male individuals were searched upon entering the compound. A NDS oﬃ cial ques oned a member of the male observa on team during the search procedure. The team did not observe any checks on female individuals entering the compound. Male and female polling sta ons were located in separate parts of the compound. Security personnel were observed inside the compound, but not inside the polling sta ons. Female voters were not searched upon entering a polling sta on, which were in three separate rooms, all with external entrances. At Dara-e- Shakardara, the polling Two women after voting at polling station in Shakardara, Kabul province, April 5, 2014 (Lillian Dang). center was a boy’s high school on top of a hill that did not have an external fence or wall. There was a separate entrance into the building for male and female voters. Male individuals entered through the front of the building and were pa ed down by

Page 2 hand. Female voters entered through a side entrance. IEC oﬃ cials did make an eﬀ ort of showing the female observa on team the female search procedures, which included the use of a metal detector to check under the burkas of women. However, the female observa on team had entered the main entrance to the building unchecked.

At Buyaza, there is a common entrance to the polling center compound, and

A provincial council candidate’s agent displays his identiﬁ cation at a separate entrances to the building polling station in Khak-e Jabar district, Kabul province, April 5, 2014 for male and female voters. Male (Casey Garret Johnson). individuals were pa ed down upon entering, but the process was not systema cally applied to all entering the building. The team observed a man carrying a tray of food and beverages into the building without any security check. At the female entrance, the team observed women being hand searched or pa ed down. However, the female observa on team was not at any point searched upon entering the building.

Observers and candidate agents: The team observed the presence of many male candidate agents at all three of the polling centers, but only one female candidate agent at the fi rst polling center. There appeared to be a minimal presence of domes c observers as the team met only one female domes c observer and no male domes c observers at the three polling centers. At Shakardara High School, the male observa on team iden fi ed approximately 10 candidate agents at the polling sta on, each represen ng the presiden al candidates Abdullah Abdullah, ‎Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, Abdul Rassoul Sayyaf, Zalmai Rassoul and Qutbuddin Hilal. There was also a notable presence of provincial council candidates’ agents. The agents confi rmed with the male observa on team that they were happy with the process so far – one declaring empha cally that he was “one thousand percent happy!” The female observa on team iden fi ed one female domes c observer from the Free and Fair Elec on Founda on of Afghanistan (FEFA) and one female provincial candidate agent, monitoring all three female polling sta ons. At Dara-e-Shakardara, the male observa on team iden fi ed approximately 14 agents represen ng the presiden al candidates Abdullah, Ghani, Sayyaf, Rassoul and Hilal, as well as provincial council candidates. At Buyaza, the male observa on team iden fi ed more than 10 agents present at the male polling sta ons, represen ng the presiden al candidates Abdullah, Ghani, Sayyaf and Rassoul, as well as provincial council candidates.

Impressions: Female voters interviewed said they were vo ng to elect a leader who will “end the war,” “stop the a acks,” and “improve the security situa on.” Others said they had turned up to vote “so that the youth can ﬁ nd work” and “children can go to school and receive a good educa on.” A ﬁ rst-

Page 3 me female voter hoped that the elec on would bring more freedom for women, and opportuni es to work outside the home. Most female voters had voted in the previous two presiden al elec ons in 2004 and 2009, giving their vote at the me to President Karzai. One female voter voluntarily disclosed that she had given her vote to the presiden al candidate Abdullah Abdullah. Other female voters did not disclose who they had cast their ballot for and were not asked to do so by the female observa on team. USIP Afghanistan Country Director Shahmahmood Miakhel observing a polling station in Shakardara, April 5, 2014 IEC oﬃ cials remarked on the notable female (Andrew Wilder).

Voters line up at a polling station on Jalalabad Road, Kabul city, April 5 2014 (Casey Garret Johnson). turnout at the Dara-e-Shakardara polling center despite the distance women had to travel to reach it. IEC offi cials noted that the major challenges for women in turning out to vote included the distance and diffi culty of travelling to polling centers, lack of awareness of the elec ons and the need to get permission from their husband and families. The female observa on noted an incident in which a female voter at the Dara-e-Shakardara polling center had complained to an IEC offi cial that she had been pressured by an IEC staff to change her vote from presiden al candidate Rassoul to another presiden al candidate. A lead IEC offi cial gave a verbal warning to other IEC staff and told the female voters that they “should vote for the candidate of their choice.”

Khak-e Jabar: USIP Senior Program Oﬃ cer Casey Johnson travelled to Khak-e Jabar, a rural district about one hour east of Kabul, with a small team of TLO staﬀ familiar with the area. The team observed four

Page 4 (Clockwise from top) An IEC worker with voting rolls at the Chenar polling station in Khak-e Jabar district, Kabul province (Casey Garret Johnson); A female voter casts her ballot in Shakardara (Lillian Dang); A voter casts his ballots for the provincial council and presidential elections in Shakardara (Andrew Wilder); Most of the male polling stations in Khak-e Jabar were located inside mosques, at this station the IEC has marked oﬀ the polling area from where men pray in the background (Rahmatullah Amiri); A voter after walking about 3 km to cast a ballot in Khak-e Jabar (Casey Johnson); A voter has his ﬁ nger inked before casting his ballot in Shakardara (Andrew Wilder).

Page 5 male polling sta ons (Khurd Kabul, Chenar, Kuz Malang and Shah Rasool). Three of the four sta ons were located inside mosques. Of the nine total polling centers (and 22 sta ons) in the Khak-e Jabar District, four opened late (one by 30 minutes, one by an hour, and two by two hours), according to the head of FEFA for the province who was interviewed by the team at a polling sta on. FEFA had a total of 14 monitors (six female and eight male in the district). One polling sta on did not A voter in the Khak-e Jabar District, Kabul province, April 5, 2014 receive materials un l the morning of (Casey Garret Johnson). the elec on, but s ll opened. The four male polling centers visited by the team reported receiving between 300 and 600 voters by 1:00pm, with higher turnouts earlier in the morning. Residents reported no in mida on by the Taliban this year, and there were no a acks on any of the polling sites as of 3:00pm, when the monitoring team le the district. Poor weather and long distances between polling sta ons may have hindered turnout slightly (especially among women), though most IEC oﬃ cials, FEFA monitors and district residents we spoke with were happy about the level of turnout. The monitoring team saw a high number of candidate agents at each of the polling sta ons—par cularly provincial council candidate agents. At one sta on, which had received around 300 votes by 2:00pm, 20 agents were present. Security at all sta ons was good, with the Afghan Na onal Army (ANA) providing a wide perimeter, followed by a closer protec on unit of the Afghan Na onal Police (ANP) at the entrance of the polling sta ons to search voters. However, the observa on team was only searched upon entering two of four polling sta ons.

Nangarhar: Three IEC-accredited USIP na onal staﬀ observed a total of 16 male polling sta ons at nine polling centers in Jalalabad City in Nangarhar province. The team returned to three centers to monitor coun ng, following the closure of the polls, which they found to be transparent and done in front of a large number of candidate agents and domes c observers. The following is a snapshot of four centers visited by the polling team.

At Afghan Mena secondary school polling center (three male, three female sta ons), observers noted a total of 60 registered candidate agents and one FEFA observer. Almost all of the candidate agents were represen ng provincial council candidates. At one point, a group of 16 women entered the female polling sta on chan ng pro-Ghani slogans, but were quickly escorted out by female IEC workers. A total of 3,600 votes were cast at the center, according to the IEC. The observer team visited two male polling sta ons at the Chaknawri polling center, and again saw a large number of candidate agents – 77 of them

Page 6 -- almost all of whom represented provincial council candidates. There was a high level of campaigning beyond the perimeter of the polling center—both by Abdullah Abdullah supporters and provincial council candidates, some with non- uniformed armed guards (see photo). The observer team returned to the center for the vote count; the IEC recorded a total of 1,200 votes cast in the two male sta ons, with the following breakdown of the top candidates: Ashraf Ghani, 957; Abdullah Abdullah, 92; Zalmai Rassoul, 56. The observer team next went to the Abdul Wakil high school to observe four male sta ons. Here they witnessed one provincial council candidate campaigning inside the polling center (see photo). One of the sta ons at the Abdul Wakil center had run through its 600 allo ed ballots by 10:55am, with approximately 600 more voters lined up outside. These voters were shi ed to another vo ng sta on inside the Abdul Wakil center without incident. The observer team witnessed a greater number of (Top) A provincial council candidate campaigning inside buses used to transport voters to this center the Abdul Wakil High school polling center, Jalalabad city, Nangarhar province; (Bott om) a pile of Ashraf Ghani ballots at than at other centers. the Bibi Aesha polling center in Jalalabad city, April 5, 2014 (Sanaullah Tassal). The team visited ﬁ ve male polling sta ons at Bibi Aesha high school and found less poli cal ac vity in the vicinity of the polling sta on and a greater number of candidate agents (approximately 60 agents at this site) as opposed to the Abdul Wakil center. The team returned to this site to monitor coun ng; IEC workers recorded a total of 3,000 votes cast.

Name 1 staƟ on 2 staƟ on 3 staƟ on 4 staƟ on 5 staƟ on Ashraf 339 419 328 342 333 Abdullah 32 30 34 27 52 Rassoul 13 10 10 7 12 Sayyaf Sayyaf 13 10 9 6 8

Table 1: Unoﬃ cial vote tallies from the ﬁ ve male polling stations at the Bibi Aesha polling center, as witnessed by the observation team.

Page 7 Name 1 staƟ on 2 staƟ on 3 staƟ on 4staƟ on 5 staƟ on Ashraf 439 71 434 83 423 Abdullah 75 82 9 92 I le the area for pray Rassoul 14 71 21 17 22 Sayyaf

Table 2: Unoﬃ cial vote tallies from the four male stations as the Afghan Mena polling center, as witnessed by the observation team.

A provincial council candidate (on phone) at left with his armed guard outside the Chawknari polling center in Jalalabad City, Nangarhar province, April 5, 2014 (Sanaullah Tassal).

Outside of Jalalabad City, the observa on team relied upon a network of contacts, some of whom USIP worked with to implement legal training programs and set up interviews with IEC oﬃ cials. According to these sources: The IEC closed polling centers a er 9:00am in the following districts due to security threats: Chaprahar, Nazyan, Pacher Agam, Ba Kot, Goshta, Shinwari, Hesarak, Kot, Sherzad, Momandara and Haska Mena. One polling sta on in the Kama district and one in the Behsud district were shut down due to reports of fraud. The observa on team was told that Meshrano Jirga Speaker Fazal Hadi Muslimyar, along with Afghan Special forces in the Chaprahar district, moved all ballot boxes in selected areas1 to the house of MP Amir Jan Dawlatzai and were stuﬀ ed in favor of Sayyaf.

Page 8 Kunduz: One female USIP na onal staﬀ member observed vo ng at three female polling sta ons at two polling centers in Kunduz City. One center was located at the Department of Agriculture and Irriga on (in the Ghahvakan area) and had one male and one female sta on. The area was clearly marked and there was no evidence of campaigning inside the center or in the vicinity of the center. Polling opened at 7:30am and closed at 2:30pm due to a shortage of ballots. Voters lined up at the Hazrat Ali polling center in Kunduz City; despite a bomb blast in the city earlier in the morning, There was also a shortage of materials during voter turnout at this polling station did not seem to be the day, with one woman repor ng that she was noticeably impacted. not able to cast her ballot due to absence of markers. At about 9:00am, about 250-300 men and about 100 women were wai ng in line to get in to their sta ons. Security at this site was tense. At one point a man wearing a patu ran toward an ANA oﬃ cer, who shouted for him to stop, and only at the last second, did the man stop and open his patu and say that he was “just kidding.” The female body check was not appropriate, with women entering the sta on in large groups and three female body searchers checking only a frac on of these women. The USIP observer was not checked when she entered the sta on. Five observers from FEFA and TEFA were present, as were candidate agents for Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani. At the Hazarat Ali high school, two female polling sta ons were observed. Turnout was higher at this loca on. Even though a bomb had detonated in Kunduz City during the morning, it did not seem to deter voter turnout at this site. More than 500 men and 300 women were wai ng in line at this sta on. Female security procedures were notably be er at this site with all women thoroughly checked before entering the polling sta on. Representa ves from Abdullah Abdullah, Ashraf Ghani, and Zalmai Rassoul were all present at the site, along with an observer from FEFA.

USIP observers Andrew Wilder and Shahmahmood Miakhel crossing a river in Shakardara; female observers Lucile Martin and Lillian Dang outside a polling center in Shakardara, April 5 2014.

1. Tarily village; Ghra Abad village; Lalma village; Ghulam Dag village; Haﬁ zan; Mulla Qabar

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