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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Two Experts Say Afghanistan is Progressing Toward Elections |
| 2004-05-26 |
| There are an estimated 10 million eligible voters in Afghanistan, but so far only about 2 million have registered to take part in the September election. .... U.S. General David Barno, the commanding general of the coalition forces in Afghanistan, acknowledged the problems last week, but said he has developed a strategy that he believes will keep interference to a minimum and allow Afghans to choose a president in September. .... Barno stressed that this does not mean he expects there will be no violence as the election nears, or that all 10 million eligible voters will be registered in time. But he says he does believe the vote will be a significant first step into democracy for a country trying to emerge from three decades of war. .... Barno expressed optimism that trouble in the border region can at least be minimized, if not neutralized, thanks to what he said was Pakistan’s commitment to policing its side of the border. He said his troops now work well in crossborder coordination with Pakistani forces. .... he believes the region is gradually becoming stabilized. "We do a great deal of coordination with the Pakistanis. We have what I’d characterize as complementary efforts on both sides of the borders and we share a great deal of information through these various information exchanges. We’ve got radios that commanders have on both sides of the border, they can talk to each other now. We’ve made some significant strides there, I think, over the last several months," Barno said. .... Radek Sikorski, a former foreign secretary and secretary of defense for Poland who now studies international affairs at the American Enterprise Institute, a private policy research center in Washington. .... [who] has traveled extensively in Afghanistan, said there has been measurable progress in making much of Afghanistan secure enough that voters can elect a president who truly represents his people. "There is basic security in most of Afghanistan. There are, of course, incidents up in the hills, particularly on the Afghan-Pakistani border. But, you know, that’s a border that has never been quiet in its many-thousand-year history. So let’s not expect too much," Sikorski said. Sikorski also acknowledged that many Afghan men probably will not permit their wives and daughters to vote, regardless of the country’s liberal election laws, and that there are many nomads who are difficult to register for the election. But he said that is reason enough to increase efforts to enroll as many eligible voters as possible. Sikorsky recalled that Afghans debated vigorously at their constitutional convention last year, and seem, for the most part, to want democracy. ... |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |