Yet another *-Cheney lie: The upcoming Afghan elections

[Toronto Ron]

The idiot and the asshole sure painted a rosy picture of the situation in Afghanistan, regarding its upcoming elections. So I came across an article in last week's The Economist (October 2-8 2004) titled "Afghanistan's election: Deeply flawed". Here are some excerpts (any typos are mine; I'm transcribing from the print edition):

"In the history of flawed elections, it is hard to think of a more precarious poll....Most of the country is considered too dangerous for the leading candidates, or the United Nations officials running the vote, to visit. Mr Karzai was forced to abort his only attempt at a campaign rally to date, after his helicopter was fired on...."

"...many polling stations will be guarded by the local opium-enriched strongmen....the European Union and other foreign organisations have found fewer than 200 observers to monitor 5,000 polling stations. Since they will not be able to observe very much, they will not, in fact, be known as election observers. So they are being called 'democracy support teams' instead."

"Given these imperfect conditions, many people have dismissed the imminent election as a publicity stunt designed to buttress George Bush's own re-election campaign."

[cthrumatrix]

1. the content is there for the media to investigate......they don't

we do not have investigative media in this country...it's gotcha journalism or spin.

[central scrutinizer]

2. plus, aren't their numbers bogus?

Bushco claims 10 million plus registered voters, which is greater than the population eligible to vote. I don't have the details, but have seen them posted somewhere on DU

[Toronto Ron]

3. You are correct

more from the article:

"A rough estimate puts the size of the electorate at 10.5m. Almost that many appear to have registered for the poll. A large portion may turn out to be bogus: there have been reports of the same people registering numerous times, whether in the hope that their registration cards will be worth money, or simply for the pleasure of being photographed. According to other reports, many teachers have been registering their pupils. Even Pakistanis are said to have registered in droves, after slipping across their north-western border."

[seabeyond]

4. and eacha nd every woman is putting life on line to vote

they have been threatened they will be killed

but what the hell, democracy