Elections In Afghanistan Research Articles

DEMOCRATIC ELECTION PROCESS IN AFGHANISTAN AND ITS SOCIO- ECONOMIC IMPACT - COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN THE PRESIDENTIAL & PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

In Afghanistan, day to a day power struggle, rampant corruption, and numerous challenges increased and affected National Unity Government. The survival of the country was managed with the help of International Assistance. Afghanistan Analyst Network reports that mismanagement and electrical fraud exist in the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2018 and 2019. Two parties in Afghanistan had created continuous political tension in the country. In several ways, the government of Afghanistan suffered due to violence and insecurity problems. The socio- political management was of the country not focused on efficiently maintaining security problems. Additionally, due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, ninety per cent of the Afghan people were suffering from economic, environmental crises and insecurity problems. The parliamentary election scheduled after the first election in 2004 led to several challenges due to slow preparations. The people of Afghans prefer to have a strong government was the lesson learnt by the presidential election in Afghanistan. The irregularities and fraud reveal the different types of voting patterns. The challenges of a presidential election in Afghanistan based on the voter turnout were examined in this study. The post-conflict state of the country caused the increase or decrease in voter turnout in Afghanistan. The change in the socio-political and economic, and security situation of the country was analyzed during the presidential and parliamentary elections. Parliamentary chambers of Afghanistan held over various years were analyzed based on the number of registered voters, ballots and valid votes.

When Ideologies Became Dangerous: An Analysis of the Transformation of the Relationship Between Security and Oppositional Ideologies in US Presidential Discourse

ABSTRACT This article investigates, by means of computer-assisted qualitative and quantitative discourse analysis, how and when ideology was securitized in US presidential speech. It reveals how securitizing speech justifies methods and targets in the resistance of “dangerous ideologies” that are problematic for democracies. The analysis reveals that the entanglement of oppositional ideologies with security was articulated in the context of the War on Terror. While the original need to see ideologies as an existential threat was necessary to justify the exclusion of the ideologies of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein from the elections in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2004 and 2005 respectively, the securitization of ideologies then spread to issue areas beyond terror and to geographic contexts outside of these two countries, all the way to US domestic political competition. The need to avoid embarrassment in Iraq and Afghanistan may have thus affected US democracy.

The Legal Framework of Presidential Elections in Afghanistan: A Critical Analysis

The Legal Framework of Presidential Elections in Afghanistan: A Critical Analysis

Electoral contention and violence (ECAV): A new dataset

Recent elections in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Iraq, Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan have displayed substantial contestation and violence. A growing literature explores the causes and consequences of electoral contention and violence, but researchers lack comprehensive, disaggregated data establishing a substantive link between elections and violence. The Electoral Contention and Violence (ECAV) dataset conceptualizes electoral contention as nonviolent or violent events of contestation by state or non-state actors related to national elections. The data contain more than 18,000 events of election-related contention covering 136 countries holding competitive national elections between 1990 and 2012. This article describes the scope of ECAV, presents the project’s definition of electoral contention and the variables included, and outlines the coding procedure. We then compare ECAV to other datasets on electoral contention. Cross-national and subnational analyses of electoral competition and violence show that the data are useful for assessing the global and subnational implications of existing theories. ECAV addresses current data limitations by focusing on election-related contention, by using clear criteria to determine whether events are election-related, and by identifying the timing, geocoded location, and actors involved.

Explaining regional patterns of violence in times of political struggle: The case of the 2005 parliamentary election in Afghanistan

Explaining regional patterns of violence in times of political struggle: The case of the 2005 parliamentary election in Afghanistan

Mixing Votes with Violence: Election Violence around the World

Elections are now held in almost every country in the world. Yet the introduction of electoral processes in developing countries has led to a mix of voting and violence rather than the establishment of peace and stability, as violence in recent elections in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Zimbabwe illustrates. Developing countries display various forms of violence closely linked to elections, such as incumbents intimidating opposition candidates and voters, armed groups using violence to disrupt electoral processes, or rioting between the supporters of opposing political parties. Until recently, a lack of globally available data complicated efforts to properly describe and understand election violence. This paper uses disaggregated event data from the Electoral Contention and Violence (ECAV) dataset to provide a global, post-Cold War assessment of election violence in the developing world. We first present a descriptive assessment, beginning with temporal and regional patterns, which show that most election violence occurs in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. We then examine timing, election type, electoral systems, and the actors and targets of election violence. Second, we probe the link between armed conflict and election violence. Violent elections in countries such as Afghanistan or Iraq highlight the challenges of holding elections during civil war, yet existing research has not been able to assess to what extent election violence takes place inside or outside of ongoing armed conflict. We conclude our systematic assessment of election violence with implications for scholarship and policy.

Elections as a Disputed Power-Sharing Mechanism in Afghanistan

The disputed outcome of Afghanistan's 2014 presidential election ended with an American-brokered agreement to form a new national unity government and a prominent commitment by the two leading candidates to a series of electoral reforms. Those reform talks have proceeded fitfully throughout the government tenure, and there has been little progress in preparing for parliamentary elections, which are officially scheduled to take place in July 2018, nearly three years after the previous parliament's five-year tenure was to expire. With donors unenthusiastic about assuming the administrative costs of this next round of elections and the government consumed by internal security challenges and other political crises, the official timeline for parliamentary elections looks increasingly uncertain—further weakening the tenuous representational function of the incumbent legislature and raising the competitive stakes for factions eying the presidential elections scheduled to take place in 2019. This essay will assess the politics of elections in Afghanistan, both among domestic actors and as they relate to the international community's engagement with and continued support for the Afghan government.

Dracula or Frankenstein? The role of the international community in the 2014 Afghan presidential elections

The 2014 presidential elections in Afghanistan were a major test of internationally led democratisation efforts in that country since 2001. They took place at a time of uncertainty, when the international community was withdrawing from Afghanistan, and in the shadow of the fraud-ridden 2009 elections that had required international intervention to resolve. The author situates the international attempt to ensure successful 2014 elections within the wider global paradigm shift over the past decade from elections as a means of self-determination to elections as a means of generating and ensuring international security. The focus on security meant that when the 2014 election did generate a political crisis in Afghanistan that threatened to destabilise the country, the international community intervened heavily in a way that undermined the future prospects of democratisation in Afghanistan. As well as questioning this intervention, the author describes a general pattern of international involvement in Afghanistan that tended to undermine sovereignty, overlook the importance of generating consensus among Afghan political actors, and badly misjudge timelines required to implement logistical processes.

The Taliban and the 2014 presidential elections in Afghanistan

The Taliban’s attitude towards the Afghan presidential elections of 2014 differed in a very substantial way from their attitude towards previous elections. Already during 2013 there were discussions within the Taliban, about whether it would not be opportune to support a candidate, in order to get a president elected, who would be more amenable to reconciliation talks with the Taliban. However, the Taliban were unable to reach a consensus on the matter, leading to differing responses to the electoral campaign of 2014, with some Taliban networks violently opposed to it, while others decided to support specific candidates. During the second round, the large majority of the Taliban decided to support Ashraf Ghani’s election, but not without serious friction with the movement’s hardliners. The majority of the Taliban’s leaders hoped that once elected, Ghani would start negotiations with them on favourable terms, whereas they believed that an Abdullah presidency would make any negotiated settlement impossible in the future. The new approach seriously alienated the Taliban’s hardliners, laying the ground for a new wave of recriminations among the Taliban, contributing to further internal divisions.

Flooding the lake? International democracy promotion and the political economy of the 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan

The introductory article to this volume positions the Afghan case within the broader literature on the political economy of war-to-peace transitions. The paper begins by critiquing the rise of democracy promotion, and then employs a political economy framework to understand the more focused research on democratisation and elections. The paper highlights some of the major features of the Afghan case that provided a backdrop for the 2014 election: a deeply divided society, a highly militarised and invasive international presence, and a history of flawed elections. This discussion helps contextualise the seemingly technical questions about constitutional design, electoral systems and the organisation and monitoring of elections. It is argued that the pursuit of elections and democratisation efforts more broadly, in a context of growing insecurity and political fragmentation, have had unintended and perverse effects. The concluding section sets out the main themes of the individual contributions that follow.

Framing ethnicity under conditions of uncertainty: the case of Hazaras during Afghanistan’s 2014 presidential elections

This article focuses on Hazaras to explore the dynamics of ethnic mobilisation during the 2014 presidential election in Afghanistan. It emphasises the communicative and interactive nature of ethnic identification as a product of the historical experiences of Afghanistan’s various ethnic communities with the state. The article analyses the election manifestos, speeches and campaign materials of the two leading candidates to identify their main communicative and discursive strategies. It finds that candidates employed Islam, ideas of national identity and specific ethnic concerns as discursive resources to appeal to elites and voters at different levels. It argues that ethnic identities as a framework for political mobilisation are closely linked to dynamics of state-building, especially the centralisation of political power and pervasive uncertainties which result from contestation over control of the state.

The Outcome of Presidential Elections in Afghanistan and the Future of Political Transit

This article is devoted to one of the most complicated issues of the regional politics in the Central and South Asia – the presidential elections in Afghanistan in 2014. The article studies the outcome and results of the presidential elections, political and juridical dilemmas around these results, the consequences of so called «political transit» in Afghanistan.

Trapped in the Past or Empowered for the Future? Afghan Women’s Prospects in the Decade to Come

The recent presidential election in Afghanistan saw larger numbers of women defying the Taliban by questioning candidates and turning out to vote. This paper argues that Afghan women now need to further revolutionize skewed gender relations within the private sphere of the family. Already a growing number of men are lobbying on behalf of female relatives who have experienced sexual abuse; the result is that notions of women’s rights are being inserted into public consciousness. A genuine women’s movement could extend well beyond the past decade’s cosmetic ‘modernization’ that has benefited only a few elite women. To gain independent bargaining power for such a groundswell, different female constituencies should unite, rallying behind a vision that appropriates and deploys liberating and peaceadvocating versions of Islam. At home – where they customarily have been bartered into marriages – girls should be expected to gain skills in literacy and numeracy that can lead to a salary and professional status. Then, instead of adhering to traditional gender roles and identities based on the number of sons they have borne, women could start to be recognized for their formal labor. As one symbolic step to reverse women’s precarious status in the decade ahead, the government and international donors should set the example of employing members of both sexes to work on projects of economic development.

Order in chaos: Ballot order effects in a post-conflict election?

Ballot order effects are well documented in established democracies, but less so in newly democratizing countries. In this research note we analyze ballot order effects in the 2010 parliamentary election in Afghanistan. The election provides a first look at ballot order effects in a high stakes, post-conflict election. In this setting, we argue that limited cognitive skills and information are more likely explanations of potential ballot order effects than mechanisms of lacking effort or ambivalence of choice. However, we find no clear evidence of a positive effect on the vote share of a higher ballot position. This raises the broader question of how applicable anomalies found in political behavior are to post-conflict democracies.

The Future of Afghan Democracy

The 2014 Afghan presidential and provincial council elections will have a critical effect on the future of Afghan democracy. At a minimum, they must be sufficiently credible to prevent severe division among elite political actors and ensure the survival of the current constitutional order. Yet there are growing expectations that the election might not merely be an elite pact between powerful figures from Afghanistan’s recent past, but more fully represent popular aspirations, particularly those of the growing urban and youth population. In order for this to happen, they must also be held in accordance with the legal rules that guide them, rather than be characterized by manipulation of these rules and government interference. Despite the problems of fraud in the 2009 election, where government figures and the electoral institutions themselves were partly responsible for the significant fraud that took place, there are a number of reasons to expect that the 2014 election will be an improvement on 2009, both in terms of participation and organization. If the elections held in Afghanistan since 2001 have diminished hopes for Afghan democracy, it is partly because an electoral formalism was introduced in Afghanistan before other elements crucial to a functioning democracy—the rule of law, political parties, institutionalized governance—really existed. The 2014 elections may reveal the boundaries of an emerging democratic space in which these features are beginning to emerge and, more importantly, where their value is increasingly recognized by Afghans. If, in every political transition, the future grapples with the past, the 2014 elections in Afghanistan may be a decisive arena of that struggle.

Insurgency and Democratisation: Taliban Real Winners of Elections in Afghanistan

Promotion of democracy has been the cornerstone of the international community's efforts for peace-building in war-torn and post-conflict societies since the end of the Cold War. The issue gained further urgency in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, when failed states were seen as breeding grounds for terrorism and sources of instability for world security. Afghanistan is one of the latest testing grounds for the democratic reconstruction model. The democratisation process was charted in December 2001 Bonn Agreement, and the latest presidential election was part of that process. This article analyses the internal and external implications of the 2009 presidential election in Afghanistan. It concludes that the election is a further proof of the failure of the democratic reconstruction model in war-torn societies. Emphasising form over substance and disregarding the political and cultural realities of the country, the international community hinged a lot of hope on the election. However, it was the Taliban who benefited from it. Militarily they demonstrated their potency vis-à-vis the NATO forces; and politically they reaped the benefits of the fallout of President Karzai's crisis of legitimacy, the risk of ethnic conflict, the UN's damaged credibility, and complications in the US counterinsurgency strategy.

Tipping point for Afghanistan?

The compromised elections in Afghanistan created a crisis that threatened to derail the international effort, particularly through their stark impact on Western public opinion. They have also produced a shift in policy that Stephen Carter argues could just prove a tipping point of another kind – but only if it can be followed through

Afghanistan's parliamentary election: towards the path of democracy

The parliamentary election in Afghanistan in September 2005, seen as the last step towards the establishment of a broad-based government based on democracy, depicts the overall political situation and power struggle among the involved parties, mainly the Islamic parties, the international community (mainly the USA) and the administration of President Karzai, all with different agendas. The immediate winners of the election were the Islamic parties, who not only used their wealth and power but also the ‘ethic card’. But they also had backing from the Afghan government and the Americans. This paper investigates what this election mean to different parties active in Afganistan's politics; the people of Afghanistan, its government and the USA. Will this election lead to the establishment of a democratic society or enhance the power of Islamic extremists and warlords?

The 2005 elections in Afghanistan

This contribution evaluates the mediating role of different political contexts and levels of democratic consolidation on the effect of party system polarization on ideological vote and discusses how this relationship enhances democratic representativeness. The influence of party system polarization on ideological voting is analyzed in two areas: the voters' competence in identifying parties' ideological positions; and the voters’ tendency to vote for the most ideologically proximate party, which is one of the key features of the spatial theories of voting. Using data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) from 1996 to 2019 and multilevel modelling techniques, the paper compares how those features vary across different types of countries, particularly older and newer democracies, and different regions of the world.

The Future of Afghanistan

Those who governed well did not arm, those who were armed well did not set up battle lines, those who set up battle lines well did not fight, those who fought well did not lose, those who lost well did not perish. --Zhuge Liang, 3d century The parliamentary elections in Afghanistan were the final event of the internationally-sponsored Bonn Accords of December 2001. During the past four years, Afghanistan has made significant progress toward democracy while reconstructing the country's political, social, and security institutions. These include adopting an enlightened constitution (January 2004), holding a successful presidential election (October 2004) and parliamentary elections (September 2005), while creating a national army and a national police force, dismantling major factional militia units, building a national economy from ground zero, expanding and improving a formal education system, and improving the status and future of Afghan women. Although Afghanistan met all the deadlines of the Bonn Accord, it has not realized the treaty's ultimate goal of ending the conflict and establishing peace and stability. Roadblocks have included the extent of war damage and a lack of sufficient investment in developing state institutions and the economy. The progress is dramatic but fragile, and it could be lost if the momentum is not sustained. Afghanistan is again at a crossroads. One road leads to peace and prosperity; the other leads to the loss of all that has been achieved. Everything depends on the level of international commitment to help Afghanistan emerge from the dark shadows of the instability and violence of its recent past. Lost opportunities and failure to respond to challenges are unfortunately the hallmarks of Afghanistan's turbulent history. In the last decade, the failure of Mujahedin groups to unite in building a democratic government following the end of Soviet occupation plunged the country into a bloody civil war, and the US abandonment of its wartime allies left a war-devastated Afghanistan to fall victim to the political schemes of its neighbors. This article looks at the challenges and opportunities that face Afghanistan in the post-Bonn period. Specifically it focuses on ways of fostering the long-term development of governance, security, and economic growth in the country. Governance Establishment of good governance is essential for fostering the development of security and economic recovery. In reaction to Afghanistan's prolonged insecurity, warlordism, and factional infighting, there is a widespread Afghan public desire for a strong central government that can provide security in the chaotic post-conflict environment and offer needed services to war-devastated communities. In order for the central government to meet such public expectations, it needs to strengthen its control of rural areas and deliver required services. While the central government has extensive constitutional authority over the provinces, Kabul's limited ability to intervene and its accommodation of local power brokers have left factional chiefs in control of local government. The situation is a reflection of the country's immediate past, where the breakdown of central government power led to the emergence of local leaders or warlords who wielded power and set up patronage networks through access to foreign aid, weapons, tax revenue, natural resources, and the illicit narcotics trade. The significant reliance of US-led Coalition forces on the factional militia to defeat the Taliban in 2001 and to conduct stability operations led to the empowerment of factional commanders while contributing to the fragmentation of power and frustrating the reform process. Over the past two years, Kabul has successfully reduced the power of warlord-governors by reassigning them away from their geographic power base, (1) but their networks continue to influence provincial administration. …