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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Results of Recent Opinion Poll in Afghanistan |
| 2004-07-30 |
| From The Washington Post, an article by Craig Charney, president of Charney Research, a New York polling firm, which conducted a voter education planning survey in Afghanistan for the Asia Foundation. ... Our survey showed that ... Afghans ... are looking forward to their first free presidential election, scheduled for October, and say they will vote in large numbers. They are also surprisingly supportive of democratic values such as equal rights and peaceful opposition. .... In the study, which involved 804 interviews with a representative, random sample of men and women in urban and rural areas in 29 of the country's 32 provinces, Afghans' interest in the election was palpable. Almost everyone knew it was coming, and 81 percent intended to vote. (This included large majorities of both sexes in every region, though some women feared their husbands might not let them vote.) Their eagerness to participate was confirmed by the rapid progress of voter registration since May, when it began in the rural areas (home to four-fifths of the population). In three months, registration soared from 1.5 million to 8 million of the estimated 9.5 million eligible voters. It continues at a pace of up to 125,000 per day, despite Taliban remnants opposed to the vote who threaten and even kill registrants. ... two out of three think Afghanistan is headed in the right direction, citing the progress toward peace, reconstruction and normality in most of the country. Interim president (and presidential candidate) Hamid Karzai has a 62 percent job approval rating and is praised for hard work and efforts to bring peace. Karzai's personal favorability is even higher -- 85 percent -- and runs across regional and ethnic lines. Moreover, Afghans have placed great faith in democratic elections: Fully 77 percent say the election of a president and parliament will make a difference. ... A solid consensus (more than 80 percent) supports equal rights under law -- regardless of religion, tribe or gender -- and the right to peaceably oppose government. Two in three now favor separating religious and political leadership, while less than 10 percent think democracy and Islam are incompatible. ... It's hard to name any other country that has successively experienced monarchy, dictatorship, communism, anarchy, warlordism and Islamic fundamentalism. Afghans might well testify to the truth of Winston Churchill's famous aphorism that "democracy is the worst system of government -- except for all the rest." In Afghanistan, they have tried them all. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #4 Too funny, tu! Does Karzai really have any real opponents other than the much beloved Taliban? |
| Posted by: GreatestJeneration 2004-07-30 7:44:33 PM |
| #3 They should've asked them all how much of a bounce they thought Karzai would get coming out of the convention. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-07-30 7:42:28 PM |
| #2 QUAGMIRE! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-07-30 10:22:20 AM |
| #1 we can all hope for Afghanistan's hopes to be realized however, with 10% of the population being terrorists or terrorist supporters, it will be difficult |
| Posted by: mhw 2004-07-30 9:30:23 AM |