STRONG VOTER REGISTRATION TURNOUT IN PASHTUN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 000029 SENSITIVE SIPDIS KABUL FOR COS USFOR-A STATE FOR SCA/FO, SCA/A, S/CRS STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG NSC FOR JWOOD OSD FOR MCGRAW CG CJTF-101, POLAD, JICCENT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM PGOV AF SUBJECT: STRONG VOTER REGISTRATION TURNOUT IN PASHTUN STRONGHOLD NANGARHAR REF: 08 KABUL 2986 ¶1. (SBU) Peaceful, poppy-free, and increasingly prosperous, the eastern province of Nangarhar is steadily adding new voters to the rolls in Phase 3 of the voter registration update for the presidential and provincial council elections this year. The impressive turnout in part reflects the widespread synergy between new and traditional institutions in the largely Pashtun province. Moreover, Nangarhar Governor Shirzai, who also comfortably draws from both formal and informal power structures, may be contemplating a run at the presidency himself, and will want the largest possible base of hometown voters. -------------- THIS IS OUR COUNTRY -------------- ¶2. (SBU) "We have 238,000 new voters in Nangarhar, and 34 per cent of these are women," Mohammad Akhtar Ajmal, the Provincial Electoral Officer (PEO) reported proudly on December 30, after 18 days of the voter registration drive. "Some people walked as far as 22 kilometers (14 miles)." ¶3. (SBU) Ajmal and his colleague, Abdullah Safar, reported overcoming a smattering of technical and administrative problems along the way. "We knew about these in advance (from the reports of Phases 1 and 2),and prepared our plans," Ajmal said. Like counterparts in Nuristan (REF),these experienced election workers preferred the simpler materials used in 2004. This election cycle, the photo printers and the car batteries used for electric power have proven slow and unreliable. In 2004, registration took three minutes per person; now staff need seven minutes. The election officials' morale is high even though salary payments are three months late. Safar said simply, "This is our country. We have to support this process as much as we can." ¶4. (SBU) Local and electoral officials are cooperating in a diverse campaign of public outreach. Women, tribal elders, and religious leaders participated in separate rallies, and organizers made sure to invite ten persons from each district to subsequently spread the word in remote areas. Election workers outfitted the sturdy, omnipresent Russian jeeps with loudspeakers to broadcast civic education messages. ¶5. (SBU) PEO Ajmal credits the headquarters of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) with "good management." One example is that, amid Nangarhar's steamy politics, the PEO is not a native son, subject to local political pressures, but instead from nearby Laghman province. Nangarhar is Pashtun political territory: almost 450,000 Nangarharis voted in the 2004 presidential election, and 95 per cent of them voted for Karzai, a significant contribution to the president's total of 4.4 million votes. The mayor of the provincial capital, Jalalabad, says dramatically that "Nangarhar is the only hope of the Pashtuns" for the election, given the insecurity in other Pashtun-dominated areas like Helmand and Kandahar. As a tribal elder, and as the supervisory mayor for the province's other mayors, he claims to influence "half" the population of Nangarhar. "Everyone," the mayor says, wants to register to vote. ¶6. (SBU) Despite close cooperation with Karzai appointees in the provincial and district governments, and despite Governor Shirzai's own possible ambitions (SEPTEL),the PEO is clear about the non-partisan nature of the voter outreach effort. Ajmal turns away any talk of politics, and says he counsels voters, "Register yourself. It's your own card." Safar adds that, with many complaining about the present government, he tells citizens that the election is their chance to hold these officials accountable for their performance. -------------- THESE ARE MY MEN -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The enthusiastic participation of the Nangarhar police in the voter registration effort provides another look at this province's model of combining the institutional and the personal in governance. Deputy chief of police Qari Amir Khan Lewal is eager to show off his detailed, written voter registration security plan. He boasts that the police joined KABUL 00000029 002 OF 002 the IEC's public outreach effort and provided the vehicles needed to transport registration materials and deploy mobile teams to remote areas. Amir Khan says he has even pulled in police desk workers to help meet the demands of the voter registration campaign. ¶8. (SBU) Amir Khan, who fought against both the Soviets and the Taliban, claims that since 2001, "We have built our administration here from scratch, and we are 80 percent successful. The greatest difference is that before, everything was done by force, and now, the work is done democratically." Asked the secret of this achievement, Amir Khan smiles: he knows all the district police chiefs, because they were his men during the jihad. As for cooperation with local officials, even his elder brother is a district governor. Now, there are no threats in Nangarhar, because the work of one, the government, and two, the tribes, Amir Khan explains. "Where we do not have enough police, I can call on the tribal elders and the community to provide protection." He himself is Pashawi, from the region's tough hillbilly tribe. ¶9. (SBU) The district governor of Khogyani, the province's trouble spot for both security and voter registration, likewise is a tribal elder as well as an appointed official. Ghulan Farooq Himat complains that the IEC has employed workers from Jalalabad, rather than his district. This, Himat says, is why one team refused to travel to the troubled area of Nuqa Khail: "They are not from here, so they do not know what is going on." PEO Ajmal traveled to Khogyani to address these complaints. Sidestepping this problem of either tribal nepotism or lack of local expertise, the PEO confirmed that he had secured the cooperation of the district's elders, district governor, chief of police, and provincial council members in public outreach. Operations in Khogyani are now "normal." At three sites near the district center visited by Mission and PRT officers on December 31, voter registration was smoothly underway. The women's site was employing two of the first 16 young women to graduate high school in the district since the fall of the Taliban. WOOD