Afghanistan will hardly have enough time to provide full security during a presidential election run-off in November, a senior official said yesterday as preparations for the second round entered full swing.
With violence in Afghanistan at its worst levels in eight years of war, the run-off poll comes as US President Barack Obama weighs whether to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan to battle a resurgent Taliban.
Afghanistan also faces a logistical nightmare before the November 7 vote that pits incumbent Hamid Karzai against Abdullah Abdullah, his main challenger and a former foreign minister, with the harsh winter closing in fast.
Mr Karzai agreed to the run-off this week after a UN-led fraud inquiry invalidated enough of his votes from the August 20 first round to push him below 50 per cent and trigger the second round under Afghan electoral law.
Concerns about security and a repeat of the fraud that tainted the first round have already cast a large shadow after weeks of political uncertainty.
Daoud Ali Najafi, chief electoral officer of the government-appointed Independent Election Commission (IEC), said he was worried that security forces would not have enough time to make the thousands of polling stations safe for voters.
“I don’t think they are able to secure (polling centres) in time for the second round. Security is really a big concern for us,” Mr Najafi said. A string of attacks around the country during the first round kept many people away from polling stations even though the Taliban, who had vowed to disrupt the election, were not able to derail the vote completely.
The coming onset of winter, which makes large parts of the mountainous country inaccessible, is also a big worry. The International Republican Institute, whose observers monitored the August vote, urged Afghanistan and its foreign backers to take urgent steps to resolve security and other concerns.
“Afghanistan faces a number of challenges in preparing for and holding a run-off election,” it said in a statement.
Mr Najafi said he had held meetings with Nato and Afghanistan’s defence and interior ministries and had submitted a list of polling centres which needed to be secured before polling day.
The UN mission in Afghanistan, which provides assistance with elections, has started distributing ballot materials around the country. It has already said many district officials would be replaced as part of efforts to prevent fraud.
The IEC has also vowed to prosecute anyone suspected of having committed fraud.
For the West, the election is a key element in efforts to stabilise Afghanistan and deny sanctuary to militants believed to have used it as a base for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
In Bratislava, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged member states to step up their efforts to train and equip Afghan forces, warning that inaction would have serious consequences.
Like Washington, Nato eventually wants Afghan security to take over defence tasks, a mission Rasmussen said was vital for the security of the region.
The poll also poses a logistical challenge in the mountainous nation where election officials have to rely on UN planes, trucks and donkeys to deliver ballots to far-flung locations.
As preparations unfolded, a military helicopter crashed in northern Afghanistan, causing casualties, a senior intelligence official said.
It was not yet clear whether the aircraft was Afghan or foreign.