Three boys watch a candidate speak at an election rally in Afghanistan. (Photo: Cassandra Markham Nelson)

Friday, September 16—People in Afghanistan will vote in democratic elections on Sunday, September 18. Around 6,000 Afghans are running for seats in the legislature, or the group of people who make national laws, and on local councils. They have worked at least a year to prepare, but are still facing major obstacles to fair and peaceful elections.

An International Effort

One obstacle is printing the ballots. Afghanistan does not have enough printing presses to print 40 million ballots, so they were printed in Austria and England.

Another problem is how to keep track of who has voted. To keep people from voting more than once, voters will stick their index fingers into a bottle of ink once they have cast a ballot. More than 140,000 bottles of special ink have been flown in from Canada. The ink does not wash off for days.

The Corn Candidate

Another problem is that more than half of the population of Afghanistan cannot read. To solve this problem, each of the 6,000 candidates has been assigned a symbol, or an image that represents them. A candidate's symbol will appear on the ballot next to his or her name and photograph.

The process of picking symbols nearly stopped the election. Candidates began fighting over who would use certain symbols. Many candidates wanted to use the symbol of a book to portray the Koran, Islam's most holy text. In the end, officials ruled that no one could use the book as a symbol on the ballot. Instead, candidates settled for symbols like an an ear of corn and a palm tree.

The Trouble With Voting

Transporting ballots and election materials to 26,000 different polling stations across the country is another major problem. Afghanistan still does not have good roads for trucks to carry supplies into many of its places. Instead, officials will use helicopters and even donkeys to bring ballots to everyone.

Another concern is safety. Citizens may be free to vote, but are they safe voting? So far, at least five people involved with the elections have been killed. Hundreds of candidates and election workers have been threatened or hurt; others have had their homes set on fire. One candidate warned a village that if they did not vote for him, he would cut off their access to water.

The greatest challenge of these elections, however, lies with the voters themselves. They are confronted with hundreds of candidates and very little information about what the candidates stand for. Most campaigns appear to be just slogans, with no real policies to back up their promises. More than 400 candidates are on the ballot for offices in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital.

Women's Rights

Women in Afghanistan do not have many rights. Many female candidates have been threatened, and few have as much money as male candidates. Most women cannot afford to organize large public gatherings or campaign events.

Despite these obstacles, many Afghan women have made the courageous decision to run for election. Nearly 350 of the 2,900 candidates for the legislature are women. These candidates are all running for 249 seats on the Wolesi Jirga, one of the two parts of the Afghan legislature.

Kids in Afghanistan
Check out our Special Report to learn all about Afghanistan. Don't miss our interviews with kids there about their lives!