Gingrich :"Afghanen, leef jullie eigen zielige leven"

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door julian

Gij kiest er natuurlijk voor alle opposanten van Assad als moslimfundamentalisten te beschouwen. Was te verwachten.

Ik stel vast, meer niet.
En niet alle natuurlijk, maar het is overduidelijk wie de macht zal grijpen moest Assad het veld ruimen.

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Dixie

dus de taliban zijn geen terroristen en Assad is geen dictator go figure....

De ene z'n vrijheidsstrijders zijn de andere z'n terroristen. Een oud gezegde.

Natuurlijk is Assad een dictator, net als Karzai.

Maar ik ben er vrij zeker van, na gesprekken met vele Afghanen en Syriërs, dat Assad meer steun geniet dan Karzai.

[julian]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door atmosphere

U beweert nu dus dat het Amerikaanse department of defence een leugenachtig rapport heeft geschreven!

grappig

Een betere onderbouwing voor mijn stelling kan ik me niet bedenken.

U weigert ook maar een centimeter verder te kijken dan de ideeen die u al had.
U weet het zelfs beter dan de US military zelf !

Gij geeft uw eigen interpretatie aan wat gij leest. En ge begrijpt er weer niets van zoals van gewoonte. Intensiever de taliban aanpakken,betekent ook meer doden.

[julian]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door tomm

De ene z'n vrijheidsstrijders zijn de andere z'n terroristen. Een oud gezegde.

Natuurlijk is Assad een dictator, net als Karzai.

Maar ik ben er vrij zeker van, na gesprekken met vele Afghanen en Syriërs, dat Assad meer steun geniet dan Karzai.

Of dat nu waar is of niet heeft geen belang.

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door julian

Of dat nu waar is of niet heeft geen belang.

geen belang? Dit is de essentie. Het Westen steunt de ene dictatuur tegen de andere, al vele decennia. Het Westen heeft dus geen enkel moreel recht zich in het syrische conflict te mengen.

[atmosphere]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door julian

Gij geeft uw eigen interpretatie aan wat gij leest. En ge begrijpt er weer niets van zoals van gewoonte. Intensiever de taliban aanpakken,betekent ook meer doden.

De taliban waren in uw ogen verdreven en hadden niets meer te vertellen en de Amerikanen zijn ze vervolgens intensiever aan gaan pakken? merkwaardig.

Voor het maken van slachtoffers onder de Amerikanen heb je toch een serieuze vijand nodig dacht ik zo.

Door de toenemende onrusten en aanvallen zijn de Amerikanen in 2010 ook maar tanks gaan sturen (15 stuks). Ook dat doen ze niet als er geen serieuze vijand is .

Deze oorlog is zoals zo velen ook niet winbaar.

Uw commentaren zijn tot dusver niet meer dan arrogant gebrul langs de zij-lijn. Steeds alleen kritiek leveren maar zelf nooit eens een topic openen bijvoorbeeld. Lekker makkelijk!

[Dixie]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door atmosphere

dream on ! In de afgelopen 2 jaar sneuvelden er meer Amerikanen in Afganistan dan in de jaren van 2001 tot 2009. Gaat goed daar ! Alles onder controle!

voor sommige hier heb ik al spijt dat de VS ons in WWII hebben bevrijd...

[Dixie]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door julian

Wat een extreem simplistische en bevooroordeelde visie op de geschiedenis.
Gij zult nog veel geschiedenisboeken moeten lezen.

denk dat ie nog aan zijn eerste moet beginnen

[Dixie]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door tomm

De ene z'n vrijheidsstrijders zijn de andere z'n terroristen. Een oud gezegde.

Natuurlijk is Assad een dictator, net als Karzai.

Maar ik ben er vrij zeker van, na gesprekken met vele Afghanen en Syriërs, dat Assad meer steun geniet dan Karzai.

Karzai dictator crap

De Presidentsverkiezingen werden gewonnen door Hamid Karzai die al meer dan twee jaar president van de interim-autoriteit en president van de overgangsregering was. Van de bijna 33 miljoen Afghaanse inwoners was ruim 10,5 miljoen burgers geregistreerd als stemmer. Onder deze geregistreerde stemmers was de opkomst 76,9%. Omdat Karzai in de eerste ronde al meer dan 50% van de stemmen behaalde was een tweede ronde niet meer nodig

[Dixie]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door atmosphere

De taliban waren in uw ogen verdreven en hadden niets meer te vertellen en de Amerikanen zijn ze vervolgens intensiever aan gaan pakken? merkwaardig.

merkwaardig
de tijd dat ze boedha beelden aan afschieten waren liggen al lang achter ons, stop living in de past

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Dixie

Karzai dictator crap

De Presidentsverkiezingen werden gewonnen door Hamid Karzai die al meer dan twee jaar president van de interim-autoriteit en president van de overgangsregering was. Van de bijna 33 miljoen Afghaanse inwoners was ruim 10,5 miljoen burgers geregistreerd als stemmer. Onder deze geregistreerde stemmers was de opkomst 76,9%. Omdat Karzai in de eerste ronde al meer dan 50% van de stemmen behaalde was een tweede ronde niet meer nodig

De massale kiesfraude die zelfs de Amerikanen niet konden ontkennen is je blijkbaar ontgaan. De verkiezingen werden op alle mogelijke manieren vervalst, van eerlijke en democratische verkiezingen was absoluut geen sprake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_...election,_2009

[atmosphere]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Dixie

voor sommige hier heb ik al spijt dat de VS ons in WWII hebben bevrijd...

Tja , die goede oude tijd.

[atmosphere]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Dixie

merkwaardig
de tijd dat ze boedha beelden aan afschieten waren liggen al lang achter ons, stop living in de past

Wie komt er hier nu met de stokoude WO2 aanzetten?

U gaat volledig mee met de "retoric of liberation" zoals de voorzitster van de Afghaanse vrouwenvereniging het noemt.

De Afghanen zijn alles behalve blij met hun zogenaamde 'bevrijding', welke nu al langer duurt als 2 × de 2e wereld oorlog. De toestand van het land is verslechterd, meer burgers komen om , sociale onrust enz..

De Karzai regering heeft geen controle over Afganistan en kan daarom ook niet als democratische regering worden gezien.

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Dixie

voor sommige hier heb ik al spijt dat de VS ons in WWII hebben bevrijd...

zonder Stalingrad spraken we nu allemaal Duits. Een beetje erkentelijkheid ten opzichte van de Sovjet-Unie graag?

[julian]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door tomm

De massale kiesfraude die zelfs de Amerikanen niet konden ontkennen is je blijkbaar ontgaan. De verkiezingen werden op alle mogelijke manieren vervalst, van eerlijke en democratische verkiezingen was absoluut geen sprake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_...election,_2009

Daar ligt gij natuurlijk echt van wakker.Laat mij niet lachen.

[julian]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door tomm

zonder Stalingrad spraken we nu allemaal Duits. Een beetje erkentelijkheid ten opzichte van de Sovjet-Unie graag?

Wat een grap. Stalingrad was niet beslissend en de USSR kwam in oorlog met Duitsland omdat het erdoor aangevallen werd en niet uit een wil om onS zogenaamd te komen bevrijden.

[julian]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door atmosphere

Wie komt er hier nu met de stokoude WO2 aanzetten?

U gaat volledig mee met de "retoric of liberation" zoals de voorzitster van de Afghaanse vrouwenvereniging het noemt.

De Afghanen zijn alles behalve blij met hun zogenaamde 'bevrijding', welke nu al langer duurt als 2 × de 2e wereld oorlog. De toestand van het land is verslechterd, meer burgers komen om , sociale onrust enz..

De Karzai regering heeft geen controle over Afganistan en kan daarom ook niet als democratische regering worden gezien.

Wat een onbeschrijflijke onzin. Volgens u waren ze beter af onder de taliban.
Zeker niet.
En voor de burgerdoden zijn de taliban volledig verantwoordelijk maar dat zult gij nooit erkennen.

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Dixie

Karzai dictator crap

De Presidentsverkiezingen werden gewonnen door Hamid Karzai die al meer dan twee jaar president van de interim-autoriteit en president van de overgangsregering was. Van de bijna 33 miljoen Afghaanse inwoners was ruim 10,5 miljoen burgers geregistreerd als stemmer. Onder deze geregistreerde stemmers was de opkomst 76,9%. Omdat Karzai in de eerste ronde al meer dan 50% van de stemmen behaalde was een tweede ronde niet meer nodig

Op werkelijk alle mogelijke manieren werden deze verkiezingen vervalst.

Attacks ahead of the voteAlready in the month preceding the election day, there was a rise in violent incidents, all over Afghanistan, including a suicide bomber attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7.[91] An ISAF spokesperson stated two days before the election that insurgent attacks had averaged 32 per day in the last 10 days, but had spiked up to 48 attacks per day within the last four days.[92] Among the major attacks reported:

On August 15, 2009, five days before the election, a suicide car bomb struck NATO's headquarters at the core of Kabul's most fortified district, in the equivalent of Baghdad's Green Zone. The massive blast that shook the city left seven people dead and 91 wounded, including several foreign soldiers, four Afghan soldiers, and a member of parliament. The attack, inside several rings of security around the fortified embassies and government buildings by the presidential palace, was confirmed by a Taliban spokesperson to have had as targets the NATO military headquarters (HQ ISAF) and the U.S. embassy less than 150 meters away, and to have been part of a campaign to disrupt the elections.[93][94]
On August 18, 2009, two days before the vote, rocket attacks or mortar rounds struck near the presidential palace in Kabul, and a suicide car bomb attack on a NATO convoy heading to a British military base killed nine people and wounded around 50. One NATO soldier was killed and two others wounded. Two UN staff members were killed, and a third was wounded. About 12 vehicles were destroyed and several surrounding buildings were damaged by the blast. A suicide bomb attack at the gates of an Afghan army base in the province of Uruzgan also killed three Afghan soldiers and two civilians.[85][87][95]
On August 19, 2009, gunmen seized control of a bank in downtown Kabul one day before the Afghan election. The bold raid was the third major attack in Kabul in five days, shattering the capital city's relative calm since the last major attacks there in February. Police reported that three fighters and three policemen were killed in the four-hour-long siege.[96]
[edit] Media blackout imposedIn decrees issued two days before the presidential election, the Afghan government imposed censorship for election day, barring news organizations from reporting any information about violence between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. out of concern that reports of violence could reduce voter turnout and damage chances of staging a successful election. Low turnout could undermine the credibility of the election – and could also hurt Karzai's results in the election if not enough ethnic Pashtun people, who form his base of support, turned out for the vote in the insurgent-dominated south of Afghanistan.[97][98]

On the eve of the election, police at the Kabul bank beat journalists and bystanders with rifle butts to keep them away from the scene where the bloody siege had taken place.[96]

The head of the Afghan Independent Journalists' Association (AIJA) said that the government censorship decrees would not stop Afghan and foreign journalists from providing information to the public during the critical election period: "It shows the weakness of the government and we condemn such moves to deprive people from accessing news."[97]

Human Rights Watch also criticized the news censorship, stating: "An attempt to censor the reporting of violence is an unreasonable violation of press freedoms."[99]

The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan called the Afghan government's limitation of media freedom on election day "a violation of democratic principles".[100]

[edit] Election day violence"This was one of the most violent days witnessed in Afghanistan in the last eight years."
—Rachel Reid, researcher for Human Rights Watch in Afghanistan[59]
Afghan government officials reported that 73 incidents of violence had taken place in 15 provinces throughout the country during voting. That number of attacks represented a 50% spike over NATO figures for the violence in the days leading up to the poll.[11][33][101]

The Afghan government also reported that at least 26 people were killed in the election day violence, including eight Afghan soldiers, nine police officers and nine civilians.[4][11][102]

The government figures were impossible to verify, however, because of the government-imposed ban against reporting any information on violence. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the number of election day attacks could actually be much higher than the government reports.[59][101]

Another report since has placed the number of attacks on election day in Afghanistan at more than 130.[84]

ISAF has since reported that more than 400 militant attacks occurred on election day – making it one of the most violent days in Afghanistan since 2001.[103] By comparison, ISAF had stated two days before the election that insurgent attacks had averaged 32 per day in the previous 10 days.[92]

In one of the worst reported attacks, militants stormed the town of Baghlan in northern Afghanistan, forcing all polling stations there to be closed down, with fighting lasting for most of the day. The district police chief was among those killed.[102][104]

Rocket attacks, gun battles, and bomb blasts occurred across much of the country, closing scores of polling stations. The province of Kandahar alone was hit by 122 insurgent rockets. Rockets and mortars were launched into Kandahar, the second largest city in the country, Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, Tirin Kot, the provincial capital of Uruzgan, as well as other cities.[100][101][102][104]

In an unconfirmed report, militants hanged two people in Kandahar because their index fingers were marked with indelible ink, showing that they had participated in the election that militants consider a tool of foreign occupation.[12][104] Before the elections militants had threatened to hack off the fingers seen stained by this ink, used to identify voters and prevent fraud. Nader Nadery, of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) said two voters had each lost their finger in southern Kandahar province.[105]

In the capital city Kabul, militants took over a building before being killed after a two-hour shootout. The capital was also reported to have been hit by at least five bomb blasts.[59][102][104]

Two British soldiers and one U.S. soldier were also killed in separate roadside bomb blasts in the southern and eastern parts of Afghanistan on election day.[84]

Ichal Supriadi, an election observation supervisor with the Asian Network for Free Elections, reported that security fears had grounded many international observers, and that their election observation center had received many reports from their ground observers of people being discouraged from going out to vote.[4]

[edit] The worst violence in 15 years"Polling day recorded the highest number of attacks and other forms of intimidation for some 15 years. Regrettably, 31 civilians were killed, including 11 IEC officials as well as 18 Afghan National Police (ANP) and eight Afghan National Army (ANA) personnel."
—AIHRC-UNAMA report, October 21, 2009[106]
In a report dated October 21, 2009, issued after the release of the final certified election results for the August 20 vote, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) stated that on election day Afghanistan had suffered the highest number of attacks and intimidation the country had seen in some 15 years. The timeframe of 15 years, going back to around August 1994, coincides with Ahmed Rashid's description from "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia" of when "Afghanistan was in state of virtual disintegration just before the Taliban emerged at the end of 1994. The country was divided into warlord fiefdoms and all the warlords had fought, switched sides and fought again in a bewildering array of alliances, betrayals and bloodshed."[106][107]

[edit] Violence in the aftermath of the vote"The highest level of civilian casualties since the fall of the Taleban in 2002 has been registered in Afghanistan in the period around the elections."
—Amnesty International, August 27, 2009[108]
On August 25, 2009, a few hours after the first preliminary results were released, a cluster of vehicle bombs detonated together in a massive explosion that killed at least 43 people and wounded at least 65 in Kandahar city, in the bloodiest attack since July 2008. The force of the giant blast, at the center of the city in a district that includes U.N. facilities and an Afghan intelligence office, caused houses and buildings around to collapse, shattering windows around the city, and sending flames shooting into the sky. People miles outside of town felt the rumble. The main target appeared to be a Japanese company that had recently taken over a contract to build a road that insurgents had stalled for several months. A Taliban spokesman denied responsibility, saying the group condemned the attack.[109][110][111][112]

On the same day, another bomb blast in southern Afghanistan killed four U.S. soldiers, bringing the total number of foreign troop deaths in Afghanistan this year to 295, making the 2009 death toll for foreign forces in Afghanistan the highest in the eight-year war since the 2001 U.S. invasion.[109][112]

On August 26, 2009, the justice ministry director of Kunduz province, Sayed Jahangir, was killed by a bomb planted in his car in northern Afghanistan.[111]

On August 27, 2009, Amnesty International issued a statement saying: "As uncertainty surrounds the outcome of presidential elections in Afghanistan, civilians are at greater danger than at any time since the fall of the Taleban."

August 2009 ended as the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion in 2001. At least 51 American soldiers were killed in the month of the election, the highest monthly toll for the U.S. in the nearly eight-year-long war, surpassing the previous high of 45 in July. The month was also the worst in the war in terms of the overall death toll for all foreign military troops, with 77 deaths. Along with 76 deaths in July, the two months were by far the deadliest for the foreign military troops in Afghanistan, according to figures from icasualties.org.[113][114]

On September 12, 2009, a day on which the IEC was to have announced the first full preliminary results, waves of attacks engulfed Afghanistan. At least 66 people – including 24 civilians, 5 U.S. soldiers, and 26 Afghan policemen, soldiers, and guards – were killed in violence that swept across the country. The bloodshed seemed to demonstrate the ability of insurgents, including the Taliban, to carry out attacks in most parts of the country despite the surge to a record number of foreign military troops in the eight-year war.[115][116][117][118]

[edit] Possible ethnic imbalanceThe lack of security and its effects on voter registration, polling station accessibility, and voter turnout – mainly in regions populated by Afghanistan's Pashtun tribes, which make up 32-37% of the country's population – have raised serious concerns about an ethnic imbalance in the Afghan election.[6][12][56][119]

"There are districts that I am 100 percent sure no government worker can go to - But you are telling me that still so many people registered? I don't believe it."
—Roshanak Wardak, Afghan member of parliament from Wardak Province[6]
According to leaders and residents of Pashtun districts, many voter registration centers in their districts never opened during the registration period and few people even left their homes, let alone registered. Provincial officials have also said that election registration teams rarely, if ever, dared to venture outside of the district capitals.[6]

In the province of Wardak, with six of the province's eight districts controlled by insurgents, this resulted in the two Hazara-dominated districts of the province forming the bulk of the new voters registered. Independent Election Commission (IEC) Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Zekra Barakzai stated that "the registration numbers in Pashtun districts are very low."[6]

According to Habibullah Rafeh, a policy analyst with the Afghan Academy of Sciences, there could be an ethnic imbalance if the same problem was reproduced in other Pashtun regions of Afghanistan.[6]

In Helmand province, where 62% of the population is Pashtun and where U.S. Marines conducted major offensives, only 75 people were found to have been registered in one town of 2,000 residents.[120]

For those that did register to vote, the absence of polling stations because of lack of security may have been the next obstacle. In Helmand province, Haji Mohammad, from Marja district, said that he sold all his family’s voting cards because there were no polling stations in their area.[7]

On the day before the election, Afghan election officials ordered 443 polling stations within insurgent territory in the Pashtun-dominated provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Zabul, Helmand and Kandahar to stay closed because of the lack of security. While the Afghan election commission had until recently presented a figure of 7,000 polling stations, on election day it reported that only 6,200 polling stations had actually operated.[87][89]

Compounded with its effects on voter registration and polling station accessibility, the lack of security also seems to have been a major factor in the much lower voter turnout in the Pashtun-dominated south of the country, where turnout was as low as 5–10%, effectively disenfranchising the region.[56][59][121]

On election day, Abdul Hamid, a tribal elder from Paghman District – a mostly Pashtun district bordering Wardak province – was reported as insisting that 40 to 50% of eligible Paghman voters had not received voting cards, and therefore could not cast a ballot.[122][123]

[edit] Election fraudStarting in December 2008, journalist Anand Gopal and others have reported extensively on the widespread instances of fraud in the voter registration process, with the registration rolls including "phantom voters" and multiple registration cards issued to a single registrant, amongst numerous other problems.[6][87]

Two days before the election, an investigation by the BBC also found and reported evidence of widespread electoral fraud and corruption in the Afghan presidential election.[6][7][8]

[edit] Voting cards being soldAfter being informed that voting cards were being sold in the capital, Kabul, an Afghan working for the BBC posed as a potential buyer and was offered one thousand voting cards on the spot, for $10 (£6) per card. Samples provided were all authentic with the name, photo and home details of the voter on them.[8] Other parties also offered to sell the BBC investigators thousands of votes, and some sellers have even been arrested by the authorities.[8]

A flourishing black market in voter registration cards has also sprung up across the south of Afghanistan where they were being sold for £6 to £18 each.[87] The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA), an independent election monitoring organisation, had also collected evidence of election fraud, particularly in the voter registration process.[7][8] The monitoring group found that in many places people were being issued multiple voting cards, that voting cards were often issued for children, and that stacks of voting cards were given to men who falsely claimed that they were for women in their households.[8] Long lists of imaginary female relatives were found to have been concocted during an attempt to update the electoral roll. In Kandahar, "Britney Jamilia Spears" appeared among the names registered.[88] FEFA found that multiple registrations of a single person were taking place in at least 40% of all centers in one phase of the registration drive, and in one case, investigators found that about 500 voting registration cards were given to just one individual in Badghis province.[6]

The independent election observers also reported that as many as one in five registrations were for people under the voting age – in many cases as young as 12 years old.[57] According to a pre-election report by the Afghanistan Analyst Network, a Kabul-based group of foreign experts, as many as three million voters on the register were feared to not exist. The huge numbers of vote cards issued for phantom voters have raised concerns about massive electoral fraud.[60][88][102] Shahrzad Akbar, a senior analyst with FEFA, stated that because the monitoring body was only able to investigate a few parts of the country, the election irregularities and abuses could be even more widespread:

"We couldn't observe how it went in every single district or village. I am sure that there are cases of multiple card distribution that we don't know about. But those incidents that we do know about caused us enough concern to contact the Independent Election Commission and say, 'please prevent this!'"[8]

[edit] Bribes being offeredThere has also been evidence that people working for candidates have deliberately tried to influence the outcome of the election by offering bribes to buy large numbers of votes.[8]

In Baghlan province, a tribal elder and former military commander described how the voter fraud scheme worked. Within the hierarchical structure of Afghanistan, key local leaders like him have the ability to persuade large numbers of people to vote for one candidate or another. He reported that he and other local leaders had been approached by teams from the two leading contenders of the presidential election with monetary bribes:

"If one candidate gives $10,000, then the other gives $20,000 and a third one offers even more. It has become such a lucrative and competitive business. I don't know where they get their money from."[8]

According to a U.S. government-funded poll released the week before the poll, the two leading contenders in the election were Hamid Karzai, the Pashtun incumbent, and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister with strong ties to the former Northern Alliance.[85][87]

In Helmand province, tribal leaders and local people also described a systematic attempt by Karzai supporters to collect or buy voter registration cards from people in an electoral fraud scheme allegedly orchestrated by Karzai's half-brother and campaign manager for the south, Ahmed Wali Karzai.[7][88]

[edit] Armed coercionAlong with bribes, cases of threats by warlords have also been reported. In Herat province, a village elder said he had been threatened with "very unpleasant consequences" by a local commander if the residents of his village failed to vote for Karzai.[43][57]

Other instances of coercion in the electoral process – ranging from threatening phone calls to beatings and killings – by government agents (particularly security forces and armed factions aligned with certain candidates) have been extensively documented.[43]

The hiring of 10,000 tribesmen by the Karzai government to secure polling stations in 21 out of 34 provinces, without uniforms and using their own guns, also raised questions of voter intimidation.[12][43][68]

During the voting, intimidation of voters by some powerful candidates, in particular local candidates running for provincial council seats, was reported by observers.[69]

In the northern province of Balkh, people were forced at gunpoint to vote for former foreign minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, according to complaints lodged with the election commission by former finance minister Dr. Ashraf Ghani in the days after the vote.[124]

Meanwhile, both the Karzai and Abdullah camps have accused each other's side of having engaged in intimidation of voters, including allegations from Abdullah of intimidation and other interference by the head of the border police in Kandahar province, General Abdul Raziq, and his forces on behalf of Karzai.[45]

[edit] Hundreds of polling stations shut downThe day before the election, Afghan election officials ordered more than 440 polling stations to stay closed during the vote out of fears of election fraud. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said Hamid Karzai's supporters were trying to keep open polling stations deep within insurgent-held regions where the army and police fear going and where voting could not be properly monitored by observers.[87]

An international observer monitoring the election proceedings said that the IEC had come under "a lot of pressure" from the Karzai administration to open more polling stations in the provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Zabul, Helmand and Kandahar where the government has little control beyond major urban centers.[87]

Registration figures suggested that concerted preparations for vote-rigging had taken place in Khost and Paktia. Records suspiciously showed that twice as many women as men had registered to vote, while a thriving black market in voting cards has appeared with cards being bought and sold by the thousands for £6 to £18 each.[9][87]

[edit] Systemic conflicts of interestGovernment workers, required to be impartial in the election, were found by election observers to have actively and illegally campaigned for candidates.[8] Investigators have also found members of political parties occupying positions as election officials.[6][69]

The most problematic conflict of interest may be the fact that the country's Independent Elections Commission (IEC) that oversees the whole election is not "independent" of the Karzai administration at all. All seven of its members were appointed to the commission by Hamid Karzai, and its chairman, a former Karzai advisor in Herat province, has reportedly made no secret of his partisan support for the incumbent president.[45][57][69][125]

In the days following the election, Karzai's main challenger, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, denounced the chairman of the IEC as working for Mr. Karzai. Foreign election observers have also criticized the Independent Election Commission as being full of Karzai appointees.[45][125]

The BBC has reported that the Independent Election Commission has been accused of not doing enough to prevent abuses that have been brought to its attention.[8]

FEFA, the country's largest independent election monitoring organization, has also raised questions about the impartiality of Independent Election Commission (IEC) local officials, and noted that questions about IEC impartiality constituted "a trend that has persisted throughout the electoral process". Throughout election day, numerous reports were received of local IEC officials improperly interfering in the voting process.[100][125]

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said the independence of the Independent Election Commission was compromised by Karzai's appointment of the IEC chairman without parliamentary oversight and accused the IEC chairman of displaying "clear bias".[125]

[edit] Voting irregularitiesElection day news included reports of widespread electoral fraud throughout the day.[33] At one polling station in Nad-e-Ali, in the Helmand province, just over 400 people had voted by 1 p.m., but three hours later, the figure had apparently rose to some 1,200, despite that guards had hardly seen any voters. Election officials were later seen counting piles of ballot papers, without checking simply declaring the votes had been cast for Karzai.[126]

As early as 8 a.m., only one hour after the polls had opened, officials at the U.S. embassy in Kabul were receiving complaints of fraud.[33]

Ashraf Ghani, one of the presidential candidates and also reported as favoured by the U.S. for a "chief executive" position to run the country regardless of the election outcome, e-mailed U.S. officials with reports of his opponents stuffing election ballot boxes. Other candidates also lodged similar complaints with U.S. officials – who referred them instead to the national election body.[12][33][34][36]

Abdullah, the main opponent to Hamid Karzai in the presidential election, said that his supporters were lodging complaints of election fraud, in particular from Kandahar province. Hours after the polls closed, his deputy campaign manager, Saleh Mohammad Registani, alleged that "very large scale" fraud had taken place in at least three of the country's 34 provinces, including ballot box stuffing.[11][33]


An Afghan man showing his inked finger, which was part of the procedure to prevent people from voting twice.Presidential candidate Mirwais Yasini, the deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament, lodged 31 complaints with Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC), telling the BBC that both main camps had engaged in widespread electoral fraud.[127]

Election monitor group FEFA reported receiving cases throughout the voting day of "improper interference" by local Independent Election Commission (IEC) staff in the voting process, raising continued concerns about the impartiality of IEC election officials. Their post-election provisional report also detailed cases of election officials being ejected from polling stations by representatives of candidates.[100][120][127]

Photojournalist Peter Nicholls of The Times photographically documented an apparent case of ballot box stuffing amid low voter turnout in Pul-e-Charkhi, in Kabul province.[128]

In a further irregularity, the supposedly indelible ink used to mark the index finger of voters to prevent voting more than once was found to be easily removable in many instances – a repeat of a problem that had also occurred in the 2004 and 2005 elections. According to Havana Marking, director of a documentary on the elections, by 9 a.m. people were bleaching their fingers and casting ballots twice. The documentary makers filmed "a cafe full of young men laughing and deciding who to vote for the second time".[11][29][57][60][101]

Complaints about the ink were made by the camps of all three of the main challengers in the presidential race. Aides to Dr. Abdullah reported that at the polling station where he had cast his ballot, voters had been able to clean the ink from their fingertips within minutes. Ashraf Ghani's team had reports of inferior ink that was easily removed being used in the western city of Herat. Presidential candidate and former planning minister Dr. Ramazan Bashardost charged that the indelible ink could be washed off easily, and lodged an official complaint endorsed by a member of the Election Complaints Commission. The former minister, who had been running third in the pre-election polls, said: "This is not an election. This is a comedy."[102][129]

[edit] Flawed electionWestern officials conceded the election would be flawed, admitting that there had been election corruption, that there was apathy, that the lack of security would stop some from voting, and that precautions designed to prevent fraud would be ineffective in many parts of the country where election monitors cannot go.[7][8][9][120][130]

The international community accepted that fraud would be inevitable in the presidential election, but hoped that it could be minimised to an "acceptable level where it will not alter the final result".[87]

Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ronald E. Neumann put the odds of an election that would appear "good enough" at "50-50".[57]

Additionally, 7 million fewer Afghans were even allowed to vote than in the last election. Thousands of complaints were filed, and there was blatant evidence of corruption.[131]


The New York Times concludeert dan ook:


According to an article by The Times, overall, "some 1.26 million recorded votes were excluded from an election that cost the international community more than $300 million." The New York Times wrote, "fraud was so pervasive that nearly a quarter of all votes were thrown out.".[207][208][/b]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_...election,_2009

Eerlijke verkiezingen? my ass. Als Karzai een democraat is, dan is Ahmadinejad dat ook.

Overigens ook opmerken dat Afghanistan volgens transparency international het tweede meest corrupte land ter wereld is.

[julian]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door atmosphere

Tja , die goede oude tijd.

Waarvan gij niets afweet aangezien geschiedenis uw sterkste kant niet is en dat is zacht uitgedrukt.

[tomm]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door julian

Wat een onbeschrijflijke onzin. Volgens u waren ze beter af onder de taliban.
Zeker niet.
En voor de burgerdoden zijn de taliban volledig verantwoordelijk maar dat zult gij nooit erkennen.

De Taliban (aan de macht gebracht door de pakistaanse inlichtingendiensten ISI, nauw verbonden met de CIA sinds de jaren 80) waren vreselijk maar het huidige regime is niet veel beter.

Ik heb het land een dag bezocht met een dagvisum vanuit buurland Tajikistan en het is precies of je professor Barabas' teletijdsmachine hebt genomen naar de middeleeuwen.




Vergelijk met Tajikistan (= Rusland).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GukXx...eature=related