Afghanistan

Taliban vow to prevent voting in presidential poll

Article published on the 2009-07-30 Latest update 2009-07-30 14:16 TU

Afghan police guard a rally in support of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah in central Bamiyan province
(Photo: Reuters)

Afghanistan's Taliban have called on people to join a holy war to disrupt the country's presidential election and prevent voters going to the polls. In an email message in the Pashtu language they call for a boycott of the 20 August vote.

The Taliban's press statement adds to concerns that security fears may lead to a poor turnout and undermine the election's legitimacy.

Repeating their call for a boycott, it urges supporters to take action to enforce it.

"They must prevent people from attending the elections and one day before the elections all roads and highways must be totally closed to government and civilian vehicles, and they must inform people," the statement says.

And the movement wants recruits to fight US-led forces in the country.

"To achieve real independence instead of going to fake election centres, they must go to jihadi trenches, and through resistance and jihad they must free their invaded country from the invaders," the statement says.

It calls for attacks on "enemy centres" but does not specifically mention polling stations as a target.

Two days ago the top UN official in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, urged the Taliban not to disrupt the election and admitted that there are "significant" security concerns.

Kabul correspondent Sardar Ahmad believes that the Taliban will not deliver on the threat.

“I don’t think that the mainstream of the Taliban movement will target the elections,” he says.

“First you’ve got more security forces – Afghan security forces and international security forces – operating right now to secure the areas where the Taliban are active for polling day. And, of course, they will have a very strong presence on the polling day to make sure that nothing happens.”

The government is meeting the Taliban behind the scenes to try to secure ceasefires ahead of the election, says Ahmad. A pre-election ceasefire has been negotiated by elders in a part of the north-western Badghis province.

Afghans are optimistic that the vote will pass off without incident,  Ahmad believes. 

“During the voter registration process we didn’t witness big incidents happening and that’s something making people very optimistic.”

On 19 July a candidate in the provincial election which is to be held on the same day was assassinated.

In eastern Laghman province on Tuesday, a campaign manager for presidential candidate Abdallah Abdallah was shot and wounded as he travelled to a meeting. His nephew, who was driving, was killed.