Key to run-off election in Afghanistan is safety

Now that Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, and his chief political rival, Abdullah Abdullah, have agreed to participate in a run-off election on Nov. 7, the question the United Nations must ponder is this: How do you assure voters in regions of the country overrun by the Taliban that they won’t be risking life or limb by going to the polls?

It’s a question based on the experiences of many Afghans who participated in the election of Aug. 20. According to Abdullah, a wave of terrorist attacks killed dozens. In some areas, Islamic militants, determined to turn back the political clock in that war-ravaged country, cut off the ink-marked fingers of people who had voted.

Voters “are taking a risk in some parts of the country and they should be confident that the risk is worthwhile,” Abdullah told the Associated Press. “I would like to see our that people are participating without an environment and atmosphere of fear and intimidation.”

A tall order, indeed, but one the U.N., the United States and other nations must address. After all, the people of Afghanistan have been told that free and fair elections are the only path to political, social and economic empowerment. They well remember the era of the Taliban, which ruled according to Islamic law and literally kept the country in the stone age.

Indeed, the ouster of the Taliban rulers by coalition forces, led by the U.S. in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America’s mainland, led to Karzai becoming president.

Allegations of corruption

However, his administration has been rocked by allegations of widespread corruption and incompetence. The emergence of Abdullah as a formidable opponent is proof of the president’s withering support.

The Aug. 20 election has fed the perception that things aren’t right in Afghanistan. Amid reports of large-scale voter fraud, a U.N.-backed panel spent the past two months investigating the claims and concluded that 1.3 million votes cast for Karzai had to be discarded. The result was that the president was left with 48 percent of the vote, 2 percent less than what he needed to avoid a runoff.

He initially said he had no intention of accepting the findings of the U.N. review, but last week after much arm-twisting by the Obama administration and particularly by U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who was in Afghanistan for several days, Karzai agreed to participate in the Nov. 7 election.

There isn’t much time for the U.N., the U.S. and others to develop strategies to ensure the safety of the voters.