Might is Right in Election Vetting

Samia Sadat is by far the best-known parliamentary candidate in the small province of Parwan, about 65 kilometres north of Kabul. An informal poll taken just one week before the elections revealed that everyone from shopkeepers and waiters to the campaign staff of other candidates is ready to vote for the province’s former education head.

There is only one problem - she is not a candidate.

Sadat has been struck off the ballot by the Electoral Complaints Commission, ECC, for “failure to effectively resign a prohibited government post”.

That Sadat has formally resigned her post as head of the Ministerial Department of Education in Parwan is not in dispute. But a decision handed down by the ECC on September 1 stated that Sadat “continues to use work-related resources and attend official functions”, and this “creates the impression” that she continues in her job.

Sadat is one of 28 candidates whose exclusion from the candidate roster was announced on September 12, just six days before voters go to the polls to choose representatives for parliament and provincial councils.

Apart from Sadat, 44 candidates have been struck off the list for various reasons. Of these, 32 were banned for “links to illegal armed groups”, shorthand for the many militia commanders who have put their names forward for election.

Another seven, including Sadat, were removed for not giving up a government post, or for not being seen to distance themselves from their post in a definitive manner.

The rest were thrown out for a variety of offences, including technical breaches of the election code.

Sadat reportedly complained to President Hamed Karzai, and her name was not on a new list of disqualified candidates which election officials issued on September 16. The document said "one case in Parwan is still under review", so it is now even less clear whether people can vote for her or not.

According to ECC chairman Grant Kippen, the commission has received close to 2,000 complaints during the election period, a figure that, he said, continues to grow daily. The complaints are investigated and a decision made based on the evidence presented.

But many think that the ECC has not been up to the task. Some say that its role has been largely symbolic, and that the five-member body lacks the political will and clout to disqualify controversial candidates.

Much of the furore revolves around well-known figures who, to many Afghans, symbolise the worst abuses of the civil-war era.

Prominent faction leaders and militia commanders such as Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq, Abd al-Rabb Rasul Sayyaf and Mohammad Younus Qanuni remain on the list. So do some less instantly recognisable figures, whose use of armed police to guard their homes or blatant disregard of campaign spending limits constitute flagrant violations of election rules.

The ECC does not take action unless a complaint is filed, and the burden is on the person submitting it to provide the necessary evidence.

“The mandate of the ECC is to adjudicate complaints arising from the election law, not to filter the number of candidates,” said Kippen, speaking at a press conference where he announced the most recent disqualifications.

He insists that every subject of a complaint is given the chance to refute the evidence against them, “Every person or organisation that is the subject of a complaint is entitled to due process.”

Not so, says Sadat. “I was never contacted by the [provincial] election commission,” she told IWPR. “I was not given the chance to clear my name.”

She made not-so-thinly veiled allegations that her rivals in Parwan had conspired to keep her off the ballot.

“There are some candidates who are enemies of mine - they gave money to the commission, and they struck off my name,” she said angrily.

The ECC refused to comment on her allegations.

The ECC’s rulings strike many observers as oddly arbitrary. In a situation where some candidates are believed to be implicated in war crimes and other acts of violence, the “use of work-related resources” seem a bit weak as a reason to kick someone out of an election.

But violence per se is not a reason for disqualification, according to ECC commissioner Janie Allison Sitton. “If the violence did not relate to the electoral process, then it is more appropriately referred to the prosecutor’s office,” she said.

That may explain why Abdul Hadi Dabeer is still in the running.

Arrested in early August for his alleged involvement in a gunfight which wounded three policemen in a dispute over his house, he spent some time in jail. Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for the interior ministry, could not confirm whether Dabeer was still in custody. “He should be in jail for at least six months,” laughed Mashal.

Sitton did, however, concede that murdering another candidate was out of bounds. “If a candidate killed another candidate, that would violate the [electoral] code of conduct,” she said.

The timing of the latest disqualifications creates the problem of how to notify the electorate.

With 40 million ballots already printed and distributed, it will not be possible to remove the names of disqualified candidates from the lists. Instead, the ECC will post notices outside polling stations containing lists of those who have either died or been struck off since campaigning started.

The lists will have no photos, because, according to ECC spokesman Joshua Wright, “There was some concern that photographs might actually encourage people to vote for the disbarred candidates.”

But in a nation where upwards of 70 per cent of the population is illiterate, written notices may not be the most effective means of getting the message out.

“People who cannot read should have someone there to read for them, if they want,” said Sultan Ahmad Baheen, spokesman for the Joint Electoral Management Body, JEMB.

What about a photo of a candidate with a large red X through it? “Not good in Afghan culture,” said Baheen.

Instead, there is a risk that large numbers of voters may be disenfranchised if they are not told in advance that their candidate of choice is no longer eligible.

Certainly this is the case in Parwan, where Samia Sadat is the runaway favourite with both men and women.

“I will vote for Samia Sadat,” said Nafis Khan, a resident of Charikar, Parwan’s provincial centre. “I know her, she has worked for our children and our people, and I am sure that she can work for us in the parliament. I believe in her.”

Agha Mohammad said he has not yet decided how he will vote, but he does have a favourite, “Samia is the best one. She rebuilt all the schools, and gave books and pencils to the children.”

Agha Mohammad is put off by former militia leaders who are using their money and power to seek election.

Another Parwan resident had a conflict of interest - he liked Sadat, but was working for another candidate. “If I had two votes, I would [also] vote for Samia,” laughed Mohammad Shafiq, 25.

Khademuddin Allahyar, another Parwan candidate, is one of the few who has heard about the disqualification, “I heard that she was abusing her office, using the school car, even using things like paper and notebooks from the schools for her campaign.”

But he added that there are other people on the ballot who should have been disqualified, he said. “That is 100 per cent certain.”

Allahyar complained of rivals in Parwan who were using the police to intimidate other candidates, tear down their posters, or even, in one case, as personal bodyguards.

“Every night [the candidate] has 16 to 18 police cars around his house, protecting him,” said Mohammad Naser, a campaign worker for Allahyar.

Asked why a woman should be struck off for using some paper and pens, while another candidate was able to use the whole police department, Khademuddin smiled philosophically.

“That candidate is strong. Samia is weak. She can do nothing.”

Wahidullah Amani is an IWPR staff reporter in Kabul.