Afghans flock to polls to choose new president

KABUL – Afghans headed to the polls in unexpectedly large numbers on Saturday, despite the heavy rains and concerns of violence and fraud. Polling stations extended their hours to accommodate the high voter turnout, and some ran out of ballots.

In the northern Kabul neighborhood of Khair Khana, a predominantly Tajik area, thousands turned up to vote. A stretch of road famous among travelers as a pit stop for dought, a fermented yoghurt drink, and bolani, a leek and potato pastry, was quiet, its stalls closed for voting day.

At a high school on the outskirts of Kabul, members of Afghanistan’s spy agency and the national police patted down each voter and checked their mouths, an additional security measure, before letting them into the voting station.

In the female-only section of the polling place, Saifura Qaderi, a 42-year-old engineer, showed off the special clothes she’d worn for voting day. She had awoken early in the morning to pluck her eyebrows, put on her gold bangles, and slip on silver shoes with matte-finishing, which she typically reserved for special occasions like weddings or Eid.

“It is the right of every Afghan to vote,” she said. “I didn’t vote in the last election, but I am voting now, and I will vote again in the next one, too.”

Qaderi said she was inspired to vote because she hoped a new president could improve Afghanistan’s economic situation. Her 22-year-old son, she said, studied pharmacy in college. Now, he couldn’t find a job.

At another school in the nearby town of Miri Bacha Koht, a steady procession of voters came to cast their ballots. The rain that fell all morning had dampened the stacks of ballots. Voters navigated their way through puddles of water on the school’s linoleum floor. An enterprising businessman set up a popcorn stand nearby. 

Hamidullah, a taxi driver with a determined look, came with four daughters, two sisters, a wife, and a son. The family tumbled out from a hatchback, and hurried to the polls.

It will be weeks before preliminary results are announced. President Hamid Karzai is constitutionally banned from running again, which has meant that the field is open with no clear front-runner. Three candidates have been leading in polls: Abdullah Abdullah, the opposition leader who was the runner-up in the last presidential election; Ashraf Ghani, the former technocrat turned politician; and Zalmai Rassoul, who is believed to have Karzai’s backing. The election coincides with the pullout of U.S-led coalition forces, and the new president is expected to lead the country through what promises to be a turbulent period.   

As the votes are counted, the next challenge will be investigating the fraud allegations that are already starting to pile up. The high spirits felt in Kabul amid Saturday’s mostly peaceful vote don’t necessarily extend to more rural areas including Wardak Province, where elections are typically fraught with corruption and fear. Few observers and reporters can travel to places where fraud happens more regularly, and so the headlines immediately after voting are dominated by more-accessible information: news of ink-stained fingers, long lines, determined voters.  

At a polling station in Pul-e-Charkhi, a Kabul neighborhood that was the scene of brazen ballot-stuffing in the 2009 presidential election, the electricity went out at midday. By early evening, election observers began counting the ballots under the glow of hurricane lanterns. Approximately 488 women voted at this particular polling station, with 471 of those ballots accepted by the observers. The other 17 had been rejected for small transgressions, like using Roman numerals instead of Persian ones. On Saturday, there didn't appear to be any evidence of the kind of fraud the station had witnessed in the past.

Outside, in the torrential downpour, men were still waiting to vote. The voting station, like others across Kabul, had stayed open after its official closing time. It had run out of ballots around 2 p.m., and had to wait until 5 p.m. to resume. The rain began to turn to hail.

Abdul Jabar, a 26-year-old aviation officer, said he had waited in line to vote since noon. Jabar – a graduate of the high school where he was now casting his ballot for Ashraf Ghani – pointed to a man huddled over counting ballots, and said that the man, Ataullah, had been his history teacher.

“If you had told me then that I would be voting for my president here, I don’t know if I would have believed you,” Jabar said.