Security of the next year presidential and provincial councils’ elections seems to be a tough challenge for Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF) that took over security responsibility of most parts of the country a few months back. As compared previous elections, there are serious concerns over the security of spring elections. As election date nears, it is expected that Taliban and other groups of insurgents will increase their activities to bar the people from participating in the election process. In 2009 elections, incidents where the Taliban chopped off voters’ fingers were reported which caused waves of fear among the people. It is feared that the same or even worse cases of violence may repeat. In order to counter that, there is a pressing need for pre-planning and coordination among security forces in Afghanistan. The NATO troops will have to support the Afghan forces to let people vote in a peaceful environment.

While the prevailing security condition poses serious threats to elections, officials and workers of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) are specifically vulnerable to insurgent attacks. On September 18, the Taliban target-killed Amanullah Aman, IEC Kunduz provincial head, the highest-ranking IEC official to be killed ever since the ouster of Taliban government in 2001. A day later three employees of IEC including a woman were abducted in Faryab province. 

President Hamid Karzai has recently issued a decree in which he has ordered Ministries of Interior and Defense and National Directorate of Security (NDS) to take measures for safeguarding the life of IEC employees, voter registration and polling centers and deploy more female police to facilitate women’s registration and voting. The decree comes at times when according to an earlier assessment by Ministry of Interior 3,410 out of the 6,845 countrywide polling centers are insecure.

There is no doubt that the terrorists would do whatever they can to disrupt the election process and a large number of election centers might be at the risk of terror attacks. Nevertheless, it is never too late to take measures. There is enough time left to the elections which must be utilized to for securing more election centers. Meanwhile, officials and workers of IEC must feel safe in order to successfully perform their duties and government is responsible to give them such a feeling.