Afghan Election Turnout Far Lower Than Expected

The turnout in Sunday's parliamentary and provincial polls in Afghanistan is estimated at around 50 percent of the electorate, considerably lower than last year's presidential poll where 70 percent of the electorate voted, election officials said on Monday.

"Based on preliminary reports from about 35 percent of polling centers nationwide, our projections are that some 6 million voters participated in yesterday's election, which is quite satisfactory in the context of a post-conflict situation," Peter Erben, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) at the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB), said in the capital Kabul.

On Sunday some 12.5 million Afghan voters -- 44 percent of them female -- were given the opportunity to elect a national assembly and 34 provincial legislatures for a five-year term. There was little of the expected violence on polling day.

Almost 5,800 candidates contested the poll, including over 2,700 for the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga (lower house of parliament) and more than 3,000 for 420 seats in 34 provincial councils.

A few explanations have already been offered regarding the relatively low turnout compared to the presidential elections.

"The voters distrust many election candidates, there has clearly been a lack of delivery by President Hamid Karzai's government and the threat of violence from armed groups like the Taliban all played their part in keeping the people away from polling stations yesterday," an election official in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif said on condition of anonymity.

"No, I didn't vote, because the commanders and warlords have not been kept out [of the election], one man in Kabul said, referring to the fact that many regional strongmen, some accused of human rights abuses in the decades of conflict, were able to stand for parliament.

Qasim Akhgar, an Afghan political analyst, said the low turnout was related to the government's failure to make good on development promises to the people. "Another key factor was the lack of awareness of millions of Afghans regarding the whole electoral process," he said.

An electoral official talking on condition of anonymity, said that the basic cause of less participation was the people could not trust the candidates, who were mainly warlords and still linked to irresponsible armed groups.

Now voting is over, concern over the safe transportation of more than 130,000 ballot boxes to counting centers is rising, following reports of some interference in the process in the eastern Nagarhar province.