In the last eleven years, Afghanistan had to lay down strong foundations for a sustainable future development. Nonetheless, this country continues to remain highly instable and its achievements are
greatly fragile. This is not the country its people had hoped for when the Taliban regime was ousted from power and the international community enhanced its presence in this country and generously provided aids for its reconstruction and development.
The international commitment to support Afghanistan for a long term beyond 2014 and Afghanistan’s strategic partnership agreements with a number of economically and politically strong countries are encouraging. Nonetheless, all those efforts will bear no sweet fruit for Afghanistan if its government fails to improve its writ, provide justice to all and seriously fight corruption, opium and elements responsible for deteriorating security condition here.
As security condition is deteriorating and political instability is increasing, hope for a stable and prosperous Afghanistan is dying in the hearts of common Afghans and the public-government trust gap has widened like never before. The withdrawal plan of NATO troops is to put Afghanistan at further menace of economic downfall and possible return of Taliban government.
The next presidential election, which will be held in April next year, is being deemed as crucial to lead Afghanistan out of the chaos it is facing today. Afghanistan political parties and analysts urge for a fraud-free election and outside Afghanistan too there are resembling views. Key to Afghanistan’s future stability will be a credible and inclusive presidential election in 2014, followed by a constitutional transfer of power. Although President Karzai has repeatedly affirmed his commitment to a peaceful, constitutional transition of power at the end of his second term, there are doubts that things would not go as smoothly as being expected.
The Western countries are withdrawing their troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. However, they are going to complete pulling out their civilian personnel far before their military forces. So there will be few international experts to oversight the election process.
The international community which has been working to put Afghanistan on the track of peace and stability must make sure that measures for conducting a free, fair and transparent presidential election are in place and must dispatch enough human resource to oversee the election process.
An election marred with allegations of fraud – as were the previous two presidential elections – can cause Afghanistan collapse all-at-once as such elections would no more be acceptable to the people of Afghanistan. The Independent Election Commission (IEC), whose authorities are currently under direct influence of presidential palace, must be autonomous in real terms so that it performs its responsibilities in the best national interest.