Opinion Afghan elections

About 2,500 candidates are contesting for the 249 seats of the Wolesi Jirga,as the lower house is called. Spokesmen for the Taliban have pooh-poohed the elections as “a process orchestrated by the foreign occupiers,for and in the interest of the foreign occupiers.”

Even before the latest threat,it was understood that holding peaceful polls in the south and east of the country,where the Taliban has been resurgent,would be either impossible or extremely challenging. The Independent Election Commission (IEC),which oversees the polls,has said that about 4 per cent of the polling centres will not open because security cannot be guaranteed. Other observers say at least 1000 of the nearly 7000 polling stations might be at risk. Women candidates and workers are special targets for the Taliban. Although more than 400 women candidates are in the fray this time — up by 25 per cent since the first parliamentary elections — they are facing much greater intimidation. About one-quarter of the seats in the lower house of parliament are reserved for women,so a degree of female representation is ensured. But the hopes for women’s rights won after 2001 are in danger of being traded away,as part of a “reconciliation” between the government in Kabul and the Taliban.

The international community which took an active role in the conduct of the elections have begun to inject some distance between themselves and what they call “an Afghan-led” process. The West’s attempts at questioning the legitimacy of Karzai’s election last year and its unsuccessful effort to hold a repoll,raised doubts about the legitimacy of the process without resolving them.

Some in the international community think it is better to postpone the elections,but others are unwilling to stop the process since Kabul wants to press ahead. An element of defeatism,and of resignation to ambiguous outcomes in Afghanistan,has begun to take hold of Western attitudes to the parliamentary election.

Peace Council

The moves for reconciliation between Kabul and the militant groups fighting the government advanced over the last weekend when President Hamid Karzai announced the formation of a High Peace Council. The list of council members will be announced at the end of Ramzan.

The council was one of the ideas approved at the peace jirga in Kabul in June and might include some former militant commanders,some women leaders,and two former Afghan presidents,Burhanuddin Rabbani and Sigbatullah Mojjadedi. American General David Petraeus said that initial approaches to sections of the Taliban have been encouraging.

Kabul wants the militants to lay down their arms and affirm support to the Afghan constitution before their integration into the main stream. The Taliban has,predictably,rejected the council and insists that the withdrawal of foreign forces is a precondition for any dialogue with Kabul.

Musharraf plots

Some old soldiers don’t simply fade away. Pervez Musharraf,once lord and master of Pakistan,has put his return plans on hold. But preparations are on for the launch of his new party,the All Pakistan Muslim League,probably in London next month.

According to reports from Pakistan,about 250 delegates,including political leaders,retired generals and former cronies of Musharraf,are expected to gather. Meanwhile,he is doing a bit to be seen as helping the victims of the great Indus flood. He has announced plans to supply a month’s ration to a thousand affected families in the Sindh province.

raja.mohan@expressindia.com