Agence France Presse

Kabul, March 18:

Afghanistan faces huge challenges in readying for its parliamentary polls, the next step in the country’s road to democracy, despite a decision to push the date back to September, officials said today. Local authorities and the United Nations have had a long time to deal with the logistical and security problems surrounding the vote, which was originally scheduled for June 2004, then for April or May 2005 and finally, President Hamid Karzai announced yesterday, for six months from now. But with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushing for the latest hold-up in Washington’s flagship experiment in nation-building to be the last, the heat is on as never before, experts say.

Karzai himself admitted the postponement was due to “technical” problems, while a bomb blast that killed five people in the southern city of Kandahar yesterday has raised fears of fresh Taliban violence. A source at the electoral commission said the September date, though likely, had not even been made official, underlining the scale of the difficulties. Afghanistan’s first presidential elections, which took place in October after initial plans to hold them alongside the parliamentary polls, were deemed a success with some eight million voters turning out and no major attacks.

The parliamentary vote has proved more complex, with problems ranging from disputes over district boundaries, finding accurate population figures and working out how refugees and nomads could vote. Julian Type, an international expert on Afghanistan’s Joint Electoral Management Body, told AFP the commission was on a very tight timeline to organise the vote. The body, which met with international donors in Kabul Wednesday, will have to raise 148 million dollars to ensure a fair and transparent electoral process, Type said. So far the United States has pledged 12 million dollars but funding and training electoral staff remain the biggest likely problems ahead, electoral officials said.

The parliamentary polls will involve nearly 8,000 national and international staff, with an additional 180,000 people being employed around election day. The presidential polls were marred by allegations of fraud after many election workers mistakenly used ordinary pens instead of indelible ink to mark the hands of people who had voted and thereby prevent multiple ballot casting. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 candidates are likely to stand for a 249-seat lower house of parliament and provincial councils. The ballots could be the size of posters because each candidate on the 69 different ballot papers due to be designed would need to be depicted, officials said. Violence also remains a concern, despite the Taliban’s failure to derail the presidential vote. Experts say Warlords with their own private armies could pose an even bigger threat than the ousted Islamic regime.