EU backs women in Afghanistan elections
The EU has invested hundreds of thousands of euros and top-level diplomatic energy into trying to get more women involved in this weekend's elections in Afghanistan.
A significant part of the EU's total €35 million election-support budget was spent on training up to 6,000 women security officers to search fellow women voters as they enter gender-segregated polling stations on Saturday (17 September). A chunk of the budget was already spent on supporting last year's poll, which was declared invalid due to widespread fraud.
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EU diplomats helped negotiate in direct talks with President Hamid Karzai to set aside 68 out of the 249 seats in parliament for women candidates only. Under election rules, if a female candidate is not elected in a gender-allocated seat she must be replaced by a female candidate from another district instead of a man.
The recently-installed EU Special Representative (EUSR) in Afghanistan, Vygaudas Usackas, told EUobserver in an interview that EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton and the US State Department's Hilary Clinton worked out the plan after meeting the leaders of Afghani women's groups at the Kabul Conference in July. Mr Usackas then followed-up with Mr Karzai in person to help put the EU and US' "red lines" in place.
"We asked him to ensure that women have a proper representation," the former Lithuanian foreign minister said.
"The participation of women voters will probably vary depending on the part of the country. I think there will be much fewer women coming out to vote in the south. But it will be better in the north," he added.
The EU election budget also helped to pay for setting-up polling booths, training extra male security staff, printing voting cards and putting in place a seven-person-strong team of EU observers who will make electoral reform proposals after the poll.
With the Taliban having killed four parliamentary candidates and 13 campaign workers in the run-up to Saturday and threatening more violence ahead, Mr Usackas said the election will not be normal by European standards.
"There's a high degree of probability that there will be attempts at fraud," he said. "There are major improvements from last year ... but there are still huge gaps, huge shortcomings. We still don't have a proper voting register. We don't know how many people there are in Afghanistan. Twenty eight million? Forty million? How many voters? Seventeen million? Twelve million?"
He noted from his talks with former Taliban fighters and Taliban proxies that there is a prospect for national reconciliation: "I'm getting the feeling that some of the factions are open to negotiations."
In a window on the life of an EUSR in a conflict zone, Mr Usackas in the past week got out-and-about to take photos of election campaigning in Kabul and in the Ghor and Herat districts in western Afghanistan. He showed the pictures to the EU member states' Political and Security Committee in Brussels on 10 September to demonstrate the enthusiasm of local people for the vote.
He also played a round of golf at the Kabul Golf Club. "I think it's important to show to the Afghans and to the international community that there is normal life in Afghanistan as well. It's not only dark but there are also some promising aspects," he said.
Maintaining personal security is a problem, however.
Mr Usackas said Kabul is a "non-family posting." When news broke that a US preacher planned to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11, EU staff received an intelligence memo to stay inside their compound due to violent street protests.
The compound, a complex of offices and apartments, houses 36 EU personnel and employs around 60 staff. The outer security perimeter is guarded by foreign-trained Afghan police. An inner ring is guarded by Nepalese Gurkhas. A private security firm, Page, also gives "close protection" to EU staff, with Mr Usackas traveling in a convoy of three cars with seven bodyguards when he ventures outside.