Kabul Youth Defy Taliban Election Threats and Pledge to Vote

A day after gunmen stormed an election office near the home of one of the candidates in Afghanistan’s upcoming presidential election — killing at least four people — a group of young Afghans took to the streets of the capital to tell the Taliban they won’t let the intimidation keep them from voting.

The students and young professionals rallied from Kabul University to another election commission office on Wednesday, inviting people to sign a banner pledging that they will vote in the presidential election scheduled for next April 5.

Organizers of the rally, which was planned at the last minute to minimize security risks, told VICE News that the initiative was a direct response to Tuesday’s blast.

“We would like to give a message to the world that as Afghan people we are not afraid, we believe in democracy and we believe that our vote can change the future of Afghanistan,” said Mirweis Azizi, a member of Afghanistan Forward, the network of young professionals behind the event. “What happened yesterday upset the people, people were very angry. Now we are even more interested, more motivated to take part in this election.”

The group collected more than 1,000 pledges to vote, from both participants and passersby, who signed their names under a large banner saying “Being an Afghan, I promise to use my vote for my favorite candidate.”

After attack on an election office in Kabul yesterday, youths kicked off campaign for wide participation in election — Ehsanullah Amiri (@euamiri)March 26, 2014

“We are not supporting anyone, but we are supporting this election,” Azizi said, explaining that the rally was not affiliated to any of the remaining eight presidential candidates.

“I was very surprised at how many people were interested in taking the marker and giving their signature,” he added, saying that those who stopped by to sign the banner represented a diversity of backgrounds. “The expectation was that people would be very afraid but people were very motivated actually, and angry.”

Afghanistan’s Taliban threatened to “use all force” to disrupt the country's upcoming election, which they condemned as a “plot of the invaders.”

“Make it known to each and every person of this society that their casting ballots and participation is considered assistance of the infidels and their stooges against Islam,” the Taliban said in a statement released on March 10. The group vowed to target poll workers, security forces, and any public site used for the election.

“If anyone still persists on participating then they are solely responsible of any loss in the future,” the statement read.

Recent weeks have seen an escalation of violence, with gun and suicide attacks at the hyper secured Serena Hotel in Kabul, a police station in the eastern city of Jalalabad, and a market in Faryab province, which left more than 50 people dead last week alone, according to UN officials. On Tuesday, attacks also rocked a bank branch in the eastern province of Kunar, and a sporting event in Kunduz.

“The elections have often been presented as a victory and as a potential victory over the Taliban so that after election day people would say, ‘see, this proves how weak the Taliban are’,” Martine van Bijlert, co-director of the Afghan Analysts Network, told VICE News after the Faryab market bombing. “Which is also a reason why around the election the Taliban would want to make their presence felt.”

That presence, she added, will likely be felt outside Kabul, and in the country’s less secure regions.

“What you’ll see probably is a very varied turnout, low in the insecure areas, higher in the secure areas,” she said. “In some areas people will be transported in buses to the polling stations and in other areas you’ll have empty polling stations. Some of the empty polling stations will be the scene of ballot-stuffing, so the ballot boxes will come back full anyway.

Despite the recent wave of violence, Afghan security forces in charge of protecting the election have made significant progress, UN officials said. They noted that the current size of those forces has doubled since the last presidential election, and their capability has greatly increased.

"Afghans are in the lead on providing security for the elections process," Nicholas Haysom, acting head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement released on Thursday. "The Afghan security forces have demonstrated their increased capabilities in the extensive preparations undertaken to give those Afghans who wish to vote the opportunity to do so.”

The organizers of Wednesday’s rally, say many voters are refusing to let the violence scare them away from the polls.

“We have seen people waiting two, three days to get their voter cards” Azizi said. “You’ll see crowds of people waiting, despite the security issues and despite the challenges, from very early in the morning, just to get a chance to get a card. It’s amazing.”

He added that Wednesday’s show of defiance was another sign of Afghans’ determination to vote.

“What we have seen today was the evidence that Afghan people are very, very interested in the election,” he said. “It shows that people have hope.”

Photos via Afghanistan Forward

Follow Alice Speri on Twitter: @alicesperi