After a day of hope and scattered violence, the Afghan people and the world awaits the 2009 Afghan election results. The people of Afghanistan defied the threats from the Taliban of violence and went to the polls to place their vote for their country’s future.
The Taliban had made threats of violence in the hopes to deter the Afghan people from going to the polls and to disrupt the election process. Their threats may have stopped some Afghans from going to vote, but it did not create any major disruption in the election process.
While there were scattered attacks of violence by the Taliban and some rocket attacks aimed at polling stations, there was no single massive attack. 26 Afghans have been reported killed by violence by the Taliban today.
The Taliban was not able to stop the election and over 6,500 polling stations were open for voting. To help encourage the voter turnout, the polls stayed open an extra hour. It is estimated that there are between 15 and 17 million eligible voters in Afghanistan. Turnout figures have not been officially released, but from early reports, it does not appear that today’s turnout is as large as it was for the 2004 elections.
It does appear that the turnout has been mixed based on the regions in Afghanistan. Up in the northern portions where there is less violence; voter turnout has been reported very high. That does not seem to be the case in the more unstable southern region. The majority of the Taliban attacks today was in the southern region and possibly could have impacted the apparent smaller turnout in that region.
A smaller turnout in the southern region could be bad news for the current President Hamid Karzai. From the southern region of Afghanistan, Karzai needs the votes from that region in order to get over 50% of the votes to be reelected.
Karzai was the favorite in the pre-election surveys, but if he does not receive over 50% of the votes then a second Afghan election will take place. Karzai closest challenger is Abdullah Abdullah in the election.
There have been reports of voter fraud and that was a concern going into today Afghan elections. There was a large international presence observing the actual voting. The most concern for fraud to occur is while the votes are being counted.
Both President Karzai and US President Obama are calling the Afghan elections today a success. The world though awaits the Afghan election results.
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