Not surprisingly, Afghans under the protection of NATO up north predicted to dominate elections

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. . . and Afghans in the south, where our military is actively prosecuting their 'war on terror', will be disadvantaged and underrepresented in the upcoming elections this year.

As in the run-up to the Iraq 'elections', the escalation of force will ensure an outcome favorable to the ruling party by providing Afghan northerners easy access to the polls and voter registration unimpeded by the ongoing and escalated military action that Afghans in the south and east are being subjected to.


Reuters reports: http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSISL354477

North-south security divide could sway Afghan vote

Mon Jan 5, 2009

KABUL, Jan 5 (Reuters) - A troubling north-south security divide could affect the outcome of Afghanistan's presidential election this year, a poll official warned on Monday, with voters still to be registered in some of the most dangerous provinces.

Voter registration in southern Afghanistan, where NATO-led and Afghan forces are struggling against a resurgent Taliban, will start in two weeks. If security does not improve, fewer people in the south would be expected to vote than in the north.

"Because security is better in the central and northern part of the country, turnout most probably will be higher, and turnout in the south, if the security situation has not changed, will be lower," Zekria Barakzai, deputy chief electoral officer at the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan, told Reuters.

The geographic spread of voters could be a deciding factor in the outcome of the vote in Afghanistan, where long-standing and complex ethnic, tribal and local rivalries often pit one village or tribe against another.

The relatively secure north is home to a mainly Tajik population, as well as significant numbers of Hazara, a Shi'ite minority who were persecuted under the Sunni Muslim Taliban.

The south and east, on the frontline of the fight against Islamist insurgents, are predominantly Pashtun, one of Afghanistan's largest ethnic groups.

read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUSISL354477