VZCZCXRO1412
PP RUEHPW
DE RUEHBUL #2622/01 2691102
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 251102Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5628
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 002622 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
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: ELECTIONS ON THE BORDER: A SNAPSHOT FROM KUNAR 
 
REF: KABUL 2416 
 
 ¶1.  (SBU)  In the northeastern province of Kunar, a 
patchwork of safe and increasingly prosperous river valleys 
stitches together dry mountains and high defiles where al 
Qaeda, the Taliban, and other anti-government forces operate. 
 The hot, dusty, fly-blown capital of Asadabad is some 150 
miles east of Kabul but only 7 miles from the border with 
Pakistan.  In meetings September 21 with PRT officers, local 
leaders and elected officials talked about elections 
Kunar-style: local solutions that draw on traditional 
structures of authority and personal relationships.  As 
voters, these representatives say Kunaris worry, first, about 
corruption, and, second, about security. 
 
--------------------------- 
Improvising toward the goal 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Provincial Electoral Officer Shahjehan Sardari is 
a veteran of the 2004/2005 electoral cycle, and he is 
determined to deliver results again.  "My uncle came to see 
me, to tell me to quit this job," he sighs.  "It is so much 
work, the family is worried I will go crazy." Shahjehan ticks 
off the tasks he has accomplished in the run-up to voter 
registration on October 6: setting up his office; hiring 
provincial office staff; hiring and training civic educators 
and district field coordinators; coordinating with the 
security forces and the governor. On September 22 he and his 
staff will examine some 200-odd applicants for the jobs in 
the voter registration centers. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Shahjehan remains concerned, however, that his 
province's voter outreach will be too little and registration 
sites too few.  "There are people living in the forests" on 
the high slopes in Kunar.  "They should know about 
elections."  Shahjehan is also worried that women and the 
elderly will remain disproportionately disenfranchised. 
Provincial Council Member Touraj is blunt: "Where al Qaeda 
is, it will be harder for women to vote." 
 
¶4.  (SBU) To solve these problems, Shahjehan says he has 
secured the agreement of Independent Elections Commission 
(IEC) field operations chief Raheem Siyal to use more mobile 
registration teams (reftel), in addition to the one already 
planned for Asadabad.  The security forces opposed 
Shahjehan's earlier suggestion to deploy some registration 
center staff as two-person teams to remote areas with 
security guarantees from local leaders.  A sampling of six of 
32 District Field Coordinators (DFCs) confirm, however, that 
they have been laying the groundwork for mobile and 
fixed-site registration in their areas.  "I organized three 
shuras already to solve these security problems," the DFC 
from troubled Manogai said.  "In the valleys I can't reach 
because security is bad, I am working with my good contacts 
with the district governors."  On September 20, the district 
governors from Manogai, Chapa Dara, and Watapoor confirmed 
that small "sub-teams" would be needed to reach remote 
villagers and women who might face family pressure not to 
travel to registration sites. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  PC Member Baber agreed with the need to secure the 
support of local communities.  "The elections will be better 
organized and have less fraud if the electoral officials rely 
on local people," she said.  She and fellow PC Member Touraj 
plan to meet with Kunar elders to persuade them to support 
women's participation.  They will also reach out directly to 
"our sisters who could not vote last time." 
 
------------------ 
Not like last time 
------------------ 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Interlocutors agree that security is a greater 
problem now than in the last electoral cycle.  The director 
of "The Young"  youth organization complains bitterly about 
the causes and sources of the present security situation in 
Kunar. "People come from Karachi and tell us what to do.  But 
 
KABUL 00002622  002 OF 002 
 
 
why, I ask, do they not blow up Karachi and Saudi Arabia?" 
No peace, he says darkly, means no elections. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  More importantly, these Kunaris stress, the 2009 
presidential and provincial candidates will face voters whose 
hopes have gone unmet.  The nation was "proud" to choose a 
president and a legislature last time, the two PC Members 
agree.  "I like my voter registration card (from 2004)," 
Touraj says.  "It is very important to me."  But even though 
women now have more access to education and jobs, "I will not 
run again, " Baber states. "We have failed."  To Baber, 
failure means requests to the central government went 
unanswered, corruption is endemic, and "foreign enemies" are 
exploding bombs and rockets. 
DELL