Ink Controversy, Bad Weather Hampers Afghan Vote in Northern Region

While voter turnout in Afghanistan's presidential election was generally recognized as high, less than half the number of registered voters were estimated to have cast ballots in the northern Afghanistan's Panshir Valley. Severe weather in the region, considered a stronghold of presidential candidate Yunus Qanooni, kept many away from the polls on election day. The use of faulty ink as a means to discourage multiple voting also served as a source of confusion.

The Panshir Valley, nestled in the vast Hindu Kush mountain range, was home to Afghanistan's legendary resistance leader legend Ahmad Shah Masood, who was assassinated just days before the September 11 terrorist attacks. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Qanooni, an ethnic Tajik like Masood, was counting heavily on a strong showing in the October 9 election in the Tajik-dominated Panshir Valley to force a run-off against interim President Hamid Karzai. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Qanooni at one time served as education minister in Karzai's interim administration, but he broke with the president after the abrupt ouster of Marshal Mohammad Fahim, an ethnic Tajik and one of Afghanistan's most powerful warlords, as vice president. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The vote in the Panshir Valley appeared to fall short of the Qanooni camp's hopes and expectations. On election day, people awakened to find that up to 40 cm (roughly 22 inches) of snow had fallen overnight, closing roads and preventing many area residents from reaching polling stations. "Not just in Panshir, but also in Nuristan and Dai Kondi [other areas in northeastern Afghanistan], the bad weather prevented people from participating," a Qanooni aide told EurasiaNet in a telephone interview.

For those who ventured out to cast ballots, many did not arrive at polling stations until the afternoon. By that point, the ink controversy had already flared. Election officials had marked each voter's hand with what was presumed to be indelible ink – envisioning it as a low-tech means of preventing multiple voting. However, the ink proved to be easily removable, opening the way for ballot fraud. [For additional information see today's related EurasiaNet story].

The ink controversy prompted Karzai's 15 presidential challengers, including Qanooni, to announce a boycott, even as polling stations were still open. As a result, Qanooni campaign workers told many of the candidate's supporters in the Panshir Valley to refrain from participating in the elections. "It was sad for us to tell voters who made it to the [polling] station in order to vote for Qanooni, not to vote. They had been waiting many years for this very day," the Qanooni aide said. Many Qanooni supporters followed orders, but some ignored the boycott call and cast their vote for the former education minister.

Not all Qanooni advisers supported the boycott decision, and some privately said the presidential candidate made a serious tactical mistake. Indeed, after receiving international assurances that all allegations of electoral irregularities would be thoroughly investigated, Qanooni backed away from his earlier support for the boycott. Pending the results of the investigation, Qanooni now says he will accept the voting results. In order to assuage, Qanooni and other candidates, the joint Afghan-United Nations Electoral Management Body opted to delay the start of the ballot counting process in order to seek additional international input on how to address potential instances of voter fraud.

Beyond the ink controversy, some electoral irregularities were observed in the Panshir Valley. For instance, in one instance, election officials permitted a man to cast 18 ballots in addition to his own. The man maintained that the 18 ballots had been filled out by female relatives who remained snow-bound at home.