When it comes to the upcoming presidential election, the greatest demand of the people of Afghanistan, who have the main role in it, is that the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and other concerned government entities must not allow anyone mess with their votes and above the future of their country. People have bitter memories from electoral frauds in previous presidential elections.
Despite insecurity and other challenges, Afghanistan has been able to conduct two terms of presidential and provincial elections in 2004 and 2009 respectively. It has also experienced two terms of parliamentary elections in 2005 and 2010 respectively. However, there were reports of frauds in all these elections especially, the 2009 presidential election was marred with allegation of massive ballot stuffing and other kinds of frauds and, therefore, it had low legitimacy in the eyes of the public.
Based on surveys conducted so far, people’s interest in participating in election process and their awareness on the importance of this democratic process has dramatically increased. Therefore, only a free, fair and transparent election can be deemed a proper response to their demands.
One of the tools that can aid in conducting a sound election is allowing independent observers and facilitating them to perform their roles. In a country like Afghanistan, election observations play an important role in developing a sound electoral practice. According to IEC officials, so far 180,000 local and foreign observers have been given permits to observe the April 5th election. The number of election observers indicates a remarkable increase as compared to their number in previous elections. This is a positive step forward that will definitely contribute to credibility of the election. The importance of monitoring of election by foreign organizations and domestic groups is that the conclusion of their observations can be used to gauge the legitimacy of election. Election observation is an important instrument that can improve the quality of elections and observers can build public confidence in the honesty of electoral processes.
Meanwhile, election observation by domestic groups encourages civic involvement in the political process. Opposite to what the common perception in Afghanistan is about election monitors, they do not directly prevent electoral fraud, but rather record and report such instances. Election observation increasingly looks at the entire electoral process over a longer period of time, rather than at election-day proceedings only.
Conducting a fraud-free election must be the top priority of IEC. For this purpose, it must make proper uses of the pivotal roles of election observers. Meanwhile, IEC employees must be instructed to fully cooperate with them.