First Afghan Free Elections

For the first time in its history, or in the history of the area, Afghanistan has just started its first ever free elections. And women are voting!

Nerves on edge, voting starts in Afghanistan’s first election

October 9, 2004, ASSOCIATED PRESS

KABUL, Afghanistan – A truck caught fire near a northern polling station today, causing no casualties but some confusion in a nation on edge as it holds its first- presidential election amid a gathering threat of Taliban violence.

A Western official said on condition of anonymity that a bomb had gone off at a polling station in Mazar-e-Sharif, but peacekeeping officials and the governor in control of the town said no such bombing had occurred.

Lt. Cmdr. Ken Mackillop, a spokesman for the peacekeepers, said there had been a truck fire at a polling station in the northern city of Maimana, but that it did not cause any casualties.(excerted from article)

I’m sorry, but that’s impossible. Everyone knows the U.S. only invaded Afghanistan to build an oil pipeline for Israel.

i knew i was right

Looks like other people have been deluded as well:
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s … 0210092046

A sign is displayed at a movie theater about the Afghan elections next to a Afghan restaurant in the Little Kabul area of Fremont, Calif. Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004. Residents of Little Kabul, the nation’s largest concentration of Afghan emigres, are watching closely as their homeland prepares to hold its first direct presidential election. As millions of voters in Afghanistan get ready to cast ballots Saturday, some residents of Fremont’s Little Kabul see the landmark vote as a crucial step for a budding democracy. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

Hurray to the relatively peaceful and fairly democratic elections held in Afghanistan. See what happens when the US leads and the Europeans show some minimal spine? Let’s face it even the smallish French and German efforts are still helpful. Time for them to get involved in Iraq as well. WE know the opposition to the US efforts in IRaq were based on corruption. The French and German citizenry should therefore help in Iraq, prosecute their corrupt leaders and join in the American effort because we were right.

According to the news, the majority of women are not voting and most of those that do are being told who to vote for my their fathers or husbands. Yes, Fred, a proud day for Afghanistan… :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

Kinda like America up to the 1950s, eh?

:bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

If Fred said it was an success than it was.

The Afghan election seems to have more successful than that held in Germany, April 10, 1932.

:bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

Anyways, it’s great they had an election.

Well no wonder Bush was so pleased with the election. It is reminiscent of his 2000 election.

[quote]Afghan poll boycott over fraud claims

The election that was supposed to open a bright future for Afghanistan threatened to end in chaos and farce yesterday, as 15 of the 18 presidential candidates called for voting to be stopped, alleging massive vote fraud in favour of President Hamid Karzai.

The election President George Bush was holding up as a success story and a model for Iraq may have backfired.

The opposition candidates’ central allegations were that the ink used to mark the fingers of those who voted and prevent people from voting twice washed off easily; that 100,000 fraudulent voter registration cards had been issued; that foreign citizens had been given fraudulent registration cards and were voting; that in one village, police had ordered people to vote for Mr Karzai; and that in some polling stations voters’ registration cards were stamped but they were not allowed to vote.[/quote]
news.independent.co.uk/world/asi … ory=570489

Here in South Carolina, Terence Hines, an employee of the SC Progressive Network (an organization run by old-school leftist Brett Bursey) has been arrested for voter fraud. Seems close to 1,500 fraudulent voter registration documents were filed by Hines. I guess the guys are trying to pull a Mayor Daley on South Carolinians.

thestate.com/mld/thestate/ne … 859478.htm

(And for those of you too young to remember, Mayor Daley, a Democrat, always won because of the large number of dead voters who voted for him. The party liked him so much they held the 1968 Democratic National Convention there. It was a real party.)


Chicago, 1968

[quote=“Mother Theresa”]Well no wonder Bush was so pleased with the election. It is reminiscent of his 2000 election.

[quote]Afghan poll boycott over fraud claims

The election that was supposed to open a bright future for Afghanistan threatened to end in chaos and farce yesterday, as 15 of the 18 presidential candidates called for voting to be stopped, alleging massive vote fraud in favour of President Hamid Karzai.

The election President George Bush was holding up as a success story and a model for Iraq may have backfired.

The opposition candidates’ central allegations were that the ink used to mark the fingers of those who voted and prevent people from voting twice washed off easily; that 100,000 fraudulent voter registration cards had been issued; that foreign citizens had been given fraudulent registration cards and were voting; that in one village, police had ordered people to vote for Mr Karzai; and that in some polling stations voters’ registration cards were stamped but they were not allowed to vote.[/quote][/quote]

It appears that election monitors are pleased to certify the voting in Afghanistan. It is a good start. The introduction of free elections bids well for the future of the area.

Observers approve Afghan election

Preliminary results are not expected for a few days
International observers have endorsed Afghanistan’s first presidential election, rejecting opposition calls for a new poll amid reports of fraud.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said demands by 15 of the 18 presidential candidates to annul the poll were “unjustified”. (excerted from BBC story)

I think that it is most interesting that the media and posters in question can only find fault. This is the first-ever election. There were some MINOR problems with the ink used and these were quickly corrected and most of the boycotters are now back on board after realizing how minor the problem was but what do we see for headlines? Only negative things and minor petty bitching. This is by far and away the best thing that has happened to Afghanistan in centuries and the liberal idiots are pooh poohing this because it is not perfect. Sick. Shameless. Amoral. Immoral.

This is a great victory for the people of Afghanistan and for the effort to free the Muslim world of Islamofascism. It is a great great day. And so far the violence of the predicted Taliban terrorist campaign has proved very light indeed. The media was wrong yet again. Will it be held accountable.

A good day for the people of Afghanistan and for the rest of us too. Let’s just hope that with one election out of the way some semblance of real law and order can permeate all through the country and not just in Kabul.To those who despise Bush so much that they want to use boycott threats (which appear to be crumbling) to bash the chimp… why bother? There is plenty of available stuff to argue about. Just be happy for a day, and accept that Bush, like most politicians, does the odd good thing and plenty of bad things. You don’t need to criticise everything.

Edit: even Fred accepted that Carter did at least one good thing! (kicking-off deregulation of some market or other…)

As opposed to the situation ante three years ago today, when women were not allowed to vote, not allowed to go to school, not allowed to learn to read, not allowed to show their faces in public under any circumstances, not allowed to have most routine medical care (since all physicians were male, and could not see a non-relative female). . . .
:bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

Maybe I should add the line about dogs, blondes and death camps back into my signature. Hmm. “Vannyel has convinced me, any regime that stones homosexuals to death can’t be all bad.”

As opposed to the situation ante three years ago today, when women were not allowed to vote, not allowed to go to school, not allowed to learn to read, not allowed to show their faces in public under any circumstances, not allowed to have most routine medical care (since all physicians were male, and could not see a non-relative female). . . .
:bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

[quote]
Are you telling me that all women in Afghanistan can now do all these things freely??? Are you really that naive?

Sigh Vannyel:

No one said things are PERFECT now but they are a hell of a lot better for most people. This is a typical leftist smear tactic. Despite the vastly improved security picture in the Middle East, Iraq is not perfect so therefore nothing we are doing is good. Ditto for Afghanistan. Have we done something that resulted in 3.5 million refugees returning? yes. Are most Afghans optimistic? Yes. Do they support the US and its actions? Yes. Ditto for Iraq though they may not want our occupation forces to stay but they recognize that they are necessary for security. So to date, 24,000 have died in Iraq getting rid of Saddam and sons, ensuring that Iraq has not wmds, stopping the murders and political oppression and all of this is morally equal or “just as bad” as Saddam?

Why don’t you just take a job anywhere since they all pay therefore any differences in salary would be meaningless. Why not just marry or go out with anyone since everyone is a person you might just as well go out with A as opposed to b to z, why not live anywhere say Africa since all environments, political conditions and societies are all the same. What’s the difference? What indeed!

[quote]No one said things are PERFECT now but they are a hell of a lot better for most people.[/quote] No one is asking for perfect…just some realistic improvement not political bs.

Then explain to me how what is taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan can be seen as anything short of miraculous? Given how bad conditions were before and how much things have improved, people should be praising and singing hosannas to the US and Bush. The fact that they are not puts them in more of a negative light than us. Shame.