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Afghanistan/South Asia

Afghans turn out for first presidential election

2004-10-09

I feel so proud right now. Thank you, President Bush, thank you, Coalition forces, thank you to all the people of good will who have been working towards this day.

Voting began in Afghanistan Saturday for the first direct presidential election in the country's history, with queues forming at polling stations despite militant threats to violently disrupt the vote. Around 100,000 armed security personnel, including 27,000 foreign troops from a US-led coalition and NATO, have been deployed to protect more than 10 million registered voters. They are selecting a president from a total of 18 candidates, with incumbent President Hamid Karzai widely tipped to win.

Good luck to all the candidates. If you see two guys on a motorcycle, duck.

The hell with ducking -- shoot back!

Queues formed early at polling stations around the country as voters expressed their delight at being allowed to choose their own leader. About 30 people were waiting outside a mosque in the Noman Abn Sadeeq Microrayon district in the capital Kabul when the polls opened. A 50-year-old unemployed man, Hayam Udin, told AFP: "I came here to elect my president on my own. The election marks the end of warlords and wars in my country."

I'm a little misty, here.

In the southern city of Kandahar, a queue of about 200 voters -- all men except for about seven women -- wrapped themselves in cloaks as they huddled against the cold at the polling station at the governor's residence. "This is the most important day in the history of Afghanistan. Today we have the golden chance to vote that we have been waiting for for so long," said 55-year-old Haji Abdul Salaam.

Freedom. It sure tastes sweet.

In a part of the country where women remain particularly subservient to men, there were 43 polling booths for males and five for females.

That's five more polling booths than were available to me until well after World War One.

In the western city of Herat, roughly equal queues of men and women waited to cast their ballots at the Takiy school polling station. "I was so happy I did not sleep," said Gholam Rezah, 55.

The balance of the article snipped for raining on my parade. I want to celebrate. Cheers to a safe and free Afghanistan!

Posted by:Seafarious

#4 Many grandstanding LLL will accuse us of social engineering, but given what was being produced pre-invasion (training of terrorists and opium), the Afghanis have come a long way out of darkness. The task we have taken on is HUGE! We are working to transform a failed nation into something that will stand on its feet and still will preserve what is good in its culture. Nobody would take on that task except us. It would have been easy just to level the place, cut off its transport, water, food production, etc to deny it to the enemy. We took the tougher path, which will pay higher dividends, but will take much extra effort.

Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-10-09 1:30:24 PM

#3 "Good luck to all the candidates. If you see two guys on a motorcycle, duck."
"The hell with ducking -- shoot back!"

Chase them into a minefield that's lying around! They're Paks, they don't know about it!

Posted by: Charles 2004-10-09 7:21:41 AM

#2 Many if not most of us have seen the film "Osama". If you haven't, you really must!

The first feature film from Afghanistan since liberation, it's the story of a young girl who is forced, through the cruelty of the Taliban, to pose as a boy in order to provide for her widowed mother and grandmother. She takes the name Osama. It's a heartbreaking movie and will stay with you for weeks after.

It's available on tape and DVD from Blockbuster, etc. See it. See the breed of bastards that Spann, Tillman, and other heroes gave their lives cleansing the Earth of and you will be doubly proud of our President, our forces, and our allies.

Best wishes to the brave people of Afghanistan and Iraq. I pray democracy and freedom flourish there.

Posted by: JDB 2004-10-09 4:12:50 AM

#1 Cheers for Afghanistan here as well. To think this central Asian nation was under one of the most repressive, animal like Islamic regimÃ© since the Dark Ages just a couple of years ago, where females had to wear cloth sacks from head to toe (burkas) under threats of death if they tried to get any form of education.

Now they are not only back in school, but voting plus running for public office in the nation's first national free election! That's the Bush doctine, it spells freedom, not Euro-Kerry appeasement

Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-10-09 2:45:22 AM

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