KABUL, (Reuters) – Insurgent violence and threats have hurt preparation for Afghanistan’s Aug. 20 election and could prevent large numbers of terrified Afghans from voting, the United Nations said yesterday. “Insecurity poses a threat to the ability of a significant number of Afghan to exercise their right to vote,” a U.N. report, issued less than two weeks before the poll.
“It is not surprising that the fear as well as the covert and overt intimidation that characterises the insurgency, creates an underlying reticence to stand for office and to campaign or to vote,” the report said.
Taliban militants say they plan to disrupt the poll, which U.S. President Barack Obama has identified as the most important test of Afghanistan’s political progress this year. Obama has rushed thousands of extra troops to the country to help secure the vote.
President Hamid Karzai, who has lined up the backing of many of Afghanistan’s powerful regional chiefs, is seen as likely to win re-election against a fractured opposition.
But diplomats worry that sustained violence on polling day, threats that sharply reduce turnout or allegations of large-scale fraud could make it hard to present any result as legitimate, and therefore worsen the instability in the country.
Violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest levels since the Taliban were driven from power in 2001, especially in the south and east of the country.
In the most violent areas, far fewer people are attending political rallies than in the past, for fear of attack, the U.N. report said. In some provinces — such as Ghazni in the south — candidates are not campaigning at all, only sending posters.
The report identified nine people killed in suspected election-related attacks, including four staff for Karzai’s campaign, as well as numerous failed assassination attempts.
Insurgents had broadcast threats by radio in two provinces and had distributed pamphlets with threats in two others. It drew particular attention to the risks faced by female candidates and voters. The Taliban and other groups violently oppose women’s participation in politics.
