The Wire

Counting begins in Afghanistan today, following the historic elections on the weekend. As ballots face scrutiny by election officials, concerns have been raised about the legitimacy of the legislative elections, the first since 1969, with estimates that only 50% of the electorate may have turned out to vote. Some within Afghanistan are also asking why warlords, implicated in war crimes, were allowed to stand for election, despite President Hamid Karzai himself being elected last year on a platform of removing these figures from power. Warlords have dominated the political scene in Afghanistan for decades, after originally being propped up with guns and funds by the US the 1980s, when the Soviet Union attempted to invade the country. But it remains questionable just how much power Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai is able to weld to control over these figures, particularly as many were previously part of the Northern Alliance, which helped the US forces overthrown the Taliban regime in 2001. Sonali Kolhatkar is the co-director of LA-based Afghan Women’s Mission. She is also the author of a forthcoming book titled “Bleeding Afghanistan”. She spoke earlier with Erica Vowles about why the voter turn out was 20 percent lower than last year’s presidential elections.