Afghan voters put Taliban on notice

The heavy turnout by voters in the Afghan presidential and provincial council elections on Saturday has astounded not only Afghanistan’s enemies, but also its friends. Early estimates suggest that about 60 per cent of the 12 million voters exercised their franchise, standing in long queues, braving rain and the ever-present threat of Taliban attacks. An impressive turnout by both men and women was also witnessed in Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban.

The contrast was indeed striking with the election five years ago held under a Western security umbrella. So enthusiastic was voter involvement that Western journalists, who until voting day were suggesting that the sudden flight of many poll observers on account of the pre-election violence wreaked by the Taliban could cast doubt on the transparency and authenticity of the election, have now been constrained to note that the generally peaceful polling — with seven million casting their vote, including 3.8 million new voters — was being seen as “a referendum on the Taliban”.

This is the first election since the ouster of the Pakistan-backed extremists from power in 2001 that the Afghans conducted themselves, managing the security aspect and the complex logistics associated with the election process. The firm evidence of the new Afghanistan will now be hard to ignore.

Sixty per cent of the country is under 25, and the voters among them turned out in huge numbers. The mood in the country is light with relief and hope as the Taliban has been put on notice. This will be the most valuable shield for the country in the face of the doomsday scenarios being drawn up by Westerners, and being lapped up by Afghan watchers in this country.

The dark picture being painted before the election was replete with two ideas that have been resoundingly rejected — a takeover by the Taliban in the post-2014 Afghanistan when the mission of Nato troops would have ended, and the outbreak of civil war between Afghan factions for power.

While President Hamid Karzai is not in the race having done two terms already, the Karzai presidency can reasonably lay claim to some credit for a clean election. India has stood by Afghanistan all these troubled years in the face of persistent Pakistani objections and repeated Taliban attacks. All the eight candidates for the Afghan presidency are friends of India. It’s time India stepped up to the plate to offer comprehensive, multi-sectoral backing to Kabul, going beyond development assistance, and offer security-related aid that Afghanistan may seek to safeguard its sovereignty.