People Less Interested in Parliamentary Elections

Afghan people did not show as much interest in the paliamentary election as what was expected. During last year's presidential election, 75% of registered people cast their votes. But during last month's parliamentary election only 50% of registered people voted, which shows the people are less interested in the parliament. The foreign media and analysts might cite security concerns for the peoples's lack of interest, but the main reason is the disappointment of the people from their government. They showed great interest in last year's presidential election, but after the passage of one year their government was not able to do anything significant to change the life of the people.

Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, is still suffering from power and water shortages, and the power supply to other provinces will take years. Wages are low, the food prices and housing rent is very expensive. Most people who did not cast their vote or those who did not register, complain about the government and they say we voted during the presidential election and selected our president but our lives have not improved and parliament will not do any thing either. So all these were the complaints of the people who did not cast their vote and who did not register. I do not blame the government, however the government has not done anything significant to improve the lives of the people because we have a weak economy and half of our budget comes from foreign assisstance. so everything takes time and our people should be patient and they should keep faith.

Different people like former Mujahideen commanders, a few former communists and many new faces nominated themselves for the parliament and people were expecting that the new faces will win seats. But far from what they were expecting, again most old faces won the seats and some of these candidates were involved in civil war. There are many reasons behind their winning, but the main reason is that many of them won for being their tribal leader. Even though they didnt have many supporters, all their supporters turned out to cast their votes. Also, these candidates spent thousands of dollars during their campaigns. The disappointment of some people that caused them to not cast their votes, lead to the victory of these old faces. Another reason is that almost six thousand people nominated themselves for the parliament so the votes were spread out and diluted.

People are concerned about the presence of the former commanders and jihadi leaders in parliament because people do not have a good impression from them. I think it it is our own people's mistake for not participating like they were supposed to do. It will be a lesson to our people and I hope in the next election they should show great interest and all people should register and participate well and elect their favorite person. It is our own people who make the difference. In my opinion the parliament members should have solid education in order to make good decisions to serve their people honestly. However some of these candidates do not have high level of education but we hope they should honestly work for their country and people.

This article was written soley by Waheed of Afghan Warrior. He is a contributing member at this site. Great article, Waheed!

Technorati tags: Afghanistan and Voting
Cross-posted: Afghan Warrior, Knickerbocker News, and My Newz 'n Ideas.