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STORY: AFGHANISTAN / ELECTIONS
TRT: 1:49
SOURCE: UNAMA
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 SEPTEMBER 2010, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
1. Various shots, polling center
2. VOXPOP (Dari) Kabul Resident:
“We just want peace in our country, we don’t want war any more in our country, it is our wich for all.”
3. VOXPOP (Dari) Kabul Resident:
“With Allah’s kindness there is a perfect security, and the voting process so far is going well with transparency and in good conditions, and there is no worry about security.”
4. VOXPOP (Dari) Ahmad Shayeq, Kabul Resident:
“I hope the candidate that I voted for, will do a good job, and not like previous parliament member that promised many things, but never did much.”
5. VOX POP (Dari) Shabana Baiat, Kabul Resident:
“My message to my sisters and mothers are to come to the election to vote, because Afghanistan spent more than 20 years of war and we can’t be at conflict more. Everyone should vote, because voting is their only right as citizen and they must fight for those right, and also they must choose their best candidates, to bring and defend their rights for them, and the only voice or reedemer thing is our voting card.”
6. Various shots, polling center
Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC), the body responsible for running Saturday’s countrywide parliamentary elections, reported that ongoing vote counting shows that the number of votes cast has reached more than four million so far.
Kabul residents expressed optimism about the security situation during elections and hoped that the candidates that they voted for would do a good job unlike “previous parliament member that promised many things, but never did much.”
According to the IEC, as of 19 September, the votes had been gathered from 22 out of a total of 35 Afghan constituencies in all parts of the country.
More than 2,500 candidates are vying for the 249 seats in Afghanistan's lower house of parliament, known as the Wolesi Jirga (the people's house), including almost 400 women candidates.
In Kabul, the IEC will record, check and verify results as part of the process of assessing the final results of the election. Provisional results are likely to be announced around 8 October, but final results are not expected until the end of the month.
The parliamentary elections are fully Afghan organized and conducted. The IEC is responsible for conducting the parliamentary elections, while the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) considers and decides on all complaints related to the election.
The United Nations is providing technical and logistical support to these two independent Afghan electoral institutions, in response to a formal request by the Government in January 2010, through the UNDP-ELECT programme.
UNAMA supports the elections as part of Afghanistan's wider political process and its support for the strengthening of democracy, but UNAMA has no role in implementing, supervising or monitoring the polls.
