Insecurity in Afghanistan remains as the greatest threat to holding elections. The Taliban have warned they will not spare life of anyone who will participate in the upcoming presidential and provincial council elections scheduled for April 5th. Therefore, risk to lives of employees of Independent Election Commission (IEC), the candidates and even the voters are growing. Although arrangements have been made to secure the life of presidential candidates, the lives of candidates for provincial councils remain under the direct threat of insurgents. Meanwhile, the Taliban would do their outmost to target polling stations in many districts of Afghanistan, posing a great risk to the lives of civilians.
Formerly, security officials had said they were not able to arrange for providing security to 414 out of 6,845 polling stations in 11 provinces. However, that number decreased to 390 when on Sunday when Siddique Siddiqui the spokesman of Ministry of Interior announced that 24 more polling stations have been secured. “We will do our best to improve security around all polling stations over the next weeks,” Siddiqui said, adding that security forces would not allow militants to disrupt the election process.
Kudos to Afghan security forces for their hard work. This is time they are tasked with security responsibilities of the election. There is no doubt that they will have to face hard challenges. Nonetheless, the Taliban should not be underestimated. They will utilize their maximum energy to disrupt the election process. Already they have killed some individuals working for IEC and as campaigners for presidential candidates.
Recent attacks of Taliban in Kabul which is a highly fortified city indicate that they are potent to launch attacks anywhere in the country. Travelling to districts of Kabul province and provinces neighboring it is not considered safe due to the presence of militants. Therefore, the Afghan security forces must be ready for any kind of circumstances before and on the day of election.
The polling stations located in the insecure districts of Afghanistan are the most dangerous ones and at the high risk of Taliban attacks. In such areas, people can definitely not go to polling stations with confidence even if the government labels them as secure. In other words, if the security condition in a particular district is not satisfactory, deploying a few police at the polling station located in that district does not mean the voters have been provided with full security.