Afghanistan parliament election

[2952-0-0]

On Sunday, Afghans will vote in an election to the 249 seat Wolsei Jirga (national parliament) as well as the assemblies for the 34 provinces. Voting will be done by party lists, and 1/4 seats are reserved for women.

Hopefully, we will see better turnout than the Iraq election. Things are going (a bit) better than in Iraq and turnout may be surprisingly high.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL203426.htm

[minionofmidas]

On Sunday, Afghans will vote in an election to the 249 seat Wolsei Jirga (national parliament) as well as the assemblies for the 34 provinces. Voting will be done by party lists

Uh, no. Purely personal election. Every province got a fixed no of seats, every voter`s got one vote to cast for an individual candidate, top n vote getters are elected. No political parties whatsoever.

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Ah yes - IIRC there's one province where the sole female candidate is already de facto elected as there's one seat reserved for women in the province.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Chances are that supporters of Karzai will do pretty well (that goes without saying though) but it'll be interesting to see how well supporters of some the former warlords do (especially Dostum and Khan).
A good turnout would be a huge blow to what's left of the Taliban.

[WMS]

I know the results aren't going to be available for some time, but has anyone heard anything? All I've heard is that the Taliban's attempt to disrupt the election failed miserably.

[ATFFL]

Afghan Ballots Reach Vote-Counting Centers

Some highlights from the FOX News article:

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[WMS]

Thanks, Tredrick. Now we wait...

[minionofmidas]

Turnout was low because interest was low because the parliament's constitutional role is weak and there were no clear directional choices.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

That's what happens if you don't allow parties to stand methinks

[minionofmidas]

That's what happens if you don't allow parties to stand methinks

It happens in Russia too, and they do allow parties.

[Platypus]

That's what happens if you don't allow parties to stand methinks

i tend to agree, but can't you just imagine what the parties would be?

[minionofmidas]

There wouldn't be any parties with support across the country, except possibly for an Afghan variant of Nash Dom Rossiye (yeah I know, dated, but I've forgotten what the current Kremlin Party is called). Thence, parties wouldn't have changed anything.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It happens in Russia too, and they do allow parties.

I thought there was a difference between a Mafia faction and a Party

[Filuwaúrdjan]

There wouldn't be any parties with support across the country, except possibly for an Afghan variant of Nash Dom Rossiye (yeah I know, dated, but I've forgotten what the current Kremlin Party is called). Thence, parties wouldn't have changed anything.

Maybe not nationally, but in a couple of places you'd have competing parties.
O/c another problem was the sheer size of the ballot. Eek!

[WMS]

There wouldn't be any parties with support across the country, except possibly for an Afghan variant of Nash Dom Rossiye (yeah I know, dated, but I've forgotten what the current Kremlin Party is called). Thence, parties wouldn't have changed anything.

Maybe not nationally, but in a couple of places you'd have competing parties.
O/c another problem was the sheer size of the ballot. Eek!

Yeah, the Uzbek Party, the Tajik Party, the Hazara Party, and one or more Pushtun Parties.

[Angel of Death]

That's what happens if you don't allow parties to stand methinks

It's still to be much more preferred than voting for parties without knowing the candidates.

[Bono]

I hear because of illiteracy, people picked random candidates from the ballot.

[2952-0-0]

Apparently, in one town ballots were found to be neatly stacked in the box, while in others voters were being told how to vote and others received ballots that already had markings on them. In a town east of Kabul ballots were distributed before the election and one person even claims to have photographed children playing with ballots before the election!!

What's going on?