Low Election Turnout in Afghanistan

GOI: In the wake (forgive the pun) of hurricane katrina and with the coverage of hurricane Rita there was little to no news of the Afghani election.

The turnout for the election was extremely low.

This from The Guardian:

Turnout was just 36% in the capital and around 53% across the country, the chief electoral officer, Peter Erben, said - a sharp dip on the 70% seen in last year's presidential poll.

Officials are pedalling hard to find comforting explanations. Mr Erben (Peter Erban: chief electoral officer) said the drop was normal in comparison with other post-conflict countries - even though, days earlier, he had handed me a factsheet predicting a sharp rise in turnout.

GOI: This is not good news for a democracy that is barely a year old and seeing a resurgance in war lords and the Taliban:

In a country awash with weapons, corrupted by drug money and threatened by a resurgent Taliban, this is a dangerous development.

The inclusion of dozens of warlords and militia commanders on the ticket disgusted voters who thought Mr Karzai and his US allies had come to usher the gunmen out of the door, not hand them the keys to the house.

The crawling pace of reconstruction is also brewing trouble. After making a string of heroic promises in late 2001, the west is letting Afghanistan down. Only around $10bn (£5.5bn) has so far been spent on reconstruction, according to most estimates.

And while some projects have succeeded - well-oiled elections, some fast roads and the training of a new national army - others have been an abject failure.

For instance, this year's drive to reduce opium production - Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world's heroin - cost much but resulted in little. Official corruption is soaring - something Mr Karzai admitted during his press conference.

...as one observer remarked, Afghanistan is one bullet away from chaos.

GOI: So don't believe George W. Bush when he says that "democracy is on the march" in Afghanistan. It's more of one step forward and two steps back.

Plus, Pulling large amounts of American troops out of the country to invade another country didn't help the situation.

The last thing that we need right now is a "failed state" in Afghanistan. Iraq is already in chaos and Pakistan is itself "one bullet away from chaos."

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