KABUL: (MEP) – The Afghan election season has started this week with authorities accepting nominations for the presidency and provincial council seats. The April 5 vote is considered a key test for Afghanistan, as the NATO-led international coalition force finishes withdrawing its forces next year.
During any election season, politicians fight for power.
But in Afghanistan, where an already unstable political situation exists, and as the foreign troops prepare to leave in 2014, this presidential election is a fight for more than just an office.
Hamid Karzai, who has held the top job since the American and foreign forces came in 2001, cannot run again due to a two-term limit.
But he and his opposition are jockeying to get their men into place.
Karzai recently made some big changes in his government, changes that some see as nothing more than political maneuvering ahead of the election in April.
“That is Karzai is still trying to hold onto the country’s power and trying to put his own people in key positions in the governorships and ministries, even the Ministry of Education. Karzai thinks he must quietly support candidates, or there is the possibility that the way the country is progressing now will change,” political analyst Ajmal Baluchzada said.
But Afghanistan is a land of tribal and ethnic differences, and each side generally votes for their own.
Many fear, including the election commission itself, that if security is not good enough or if there is corruption, the chance for Afghanistan to stand on it’s own feet could be lost.
The American’s withdrawal strategy is based on building up the Afghan security forces. But if the Afghan people don’t have an honest and fair election that they can believe in, strong security forces might not be enough.
So while the politicians are taking sides and moving into place for the candidacy, the Afghan people are still suffering.
Violence has risen this year, with the United Nations saying there have been almost 4,000 killed or wounded in the first half of 2013 alone.
Many of them say they have had enough.
“Our people are dying in the provinces and Kabul in Taliban attacks, but no one cares to stop this. Every day there is bloodshed. They just destroyed a family’s house and no one helped. The government is just trying to make money and they don’t care about us,” a Kabul resident said.
This week election officials have begun accepting nominations for the presidential candidates.
All the Afghan people want is a leader who will offer them jobs, equal rights, and an end to violence.
By CCTV correspondent Courtney Body
