Brussels, 19/08/2009 (Agence Europe) - On the eve of the presidential and provincial elections in Afghanistan, set to take place this Thursday 20 August, the situation in the country remains tense, both at security and political level. The Afghan government has swept aside a raft of criticism after its decision, on Tuesday 18 August, to ban local and international media from talking about the possibility of violence on election day.
A spokesperson the Afghan Presidency confirmed on Tuesday that despite a new wave of violence in recent days, the government was confident that the electorate would turn out to vote. Millions of Afghans have registered to vote this year, which shows that they are "determined" to vote, he stressed, also laying emphasis on the "security preparations". Against this backdrop, the Afghan Foreign Affairs Minister on Tuesday published a press release calling upon the media "not to report information about the violence" which may occur on Thursday, in order to ensure "a large turnout of the Afghan people to the elections" by not scaring them by announcing "terrorist" actions.
Calls on the people to go and vote have also been launched by the Swedish Presidency of the EU and by the UN in recent days. The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, urged all Afghans who are entitled to do so to go to the polls and urged the candidates, their supporters and national and international observers to help "ensure a trouble-free and highly successful election procedure". For his part, the Swedish Ambassador to Kabul, Svante Kilander, paid tribute on Thursday 13 August to the "great interest in the elections" shown by the Afghan people. According to the press, around 17 million voters may be taking part in these elections and almost 250,000 electoral observers and 330,000 security force members will be deployed to observe their unfolding. In addition to its contribution of 35 million euros to the UN electoral support fund (ELECT), the European Commission has also deployed an observation mission. Headed up by Pierre Morillon of France, the mission has around 200 members. According to the Afghan electoral commission, however, around 12% of the 7000 polling stations may be forced to remain closed due to insecurity issues. (A.By./trans.fl)