VZCZCXRO0259
PP RUEHPW
DE RUEHBUL #0029/01 0060543
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 060543Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6615
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

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