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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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The Afghans Have a Referendum on Democracy
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | RBH |
| Last Edited | RBH Aug 13, 2009 07:22pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Wall Street Journal |
| News Date | Friday, August 14, 2009 01:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Dr. Abdullah, 49 years old, is an ophthalmologist and a former foreign minister of Afghanistan who entered politics by organizing medical care for the Afghan resistance after the Soviet invasion in 1979. He's running on a platform of overhauling the 2002 Afghan Constitution. He advocates a parliamentary system, political parties, and direct elections of mayors and provincial governors. (They're currently appointed by the president.)
Dr. Abdullah has single-handedly turned this election into a much-needed referendum on governance. How much direct democracy is enough? When is a people "mature" enough to elect its leaders? Is legitimacy derived from an election, from performance, or from the power of the gun? These are questions that resonate in Afghanistan as much as they do for Americans considering the merits of democracy promotion overseas.
Until recently, Dr. Abdullah's main rival was his former colleague in Mr. Karzai's cabinet, former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani. In recent weeks, Dr. Abdullah has pulled ahead significantly. There are 38 other candidates—one of the symptoms of the flawed Afghan electoral process Dr. Abdullah wants to fix. Currently, all it takes to get on the presidential ballot is 10,000 signatures.
While there's no official poll, the radio station Salam Watandar, in a poll conducted via mobile phones, put Dr. Abdullah at 33%, Mr. Karzai at 27%, the eccentric parliamentarian Ramazan Bashardost at 13%, and Mr. Ghani at 11%. |
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