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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBUL #2439/01 2321115
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 201115Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0958
INFO RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 7776
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 3803
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS KABUL 002439 
 
DEPT FOR AFGHAN ELECTIONS TASK FORCE 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM AF
 
SUBJECT: Afghan Elections Situation Report Six - 1600 Local, August 
20, 2009 
 
¶1. (SBU) The next sitrep is scheduled for 1800 local on August 20. 
 
 
------------ 
Atmospherics 
------------ 
 
¶2. (SBU) UN Special Representative Kai Eide met with Ambassadors at 
1300 local time to convey his first impressions of the day of 
voting.  He said that generally, people want to vote but that 
turnout varies greatly - from lower in the South, medium/medium-plus 
in Kabul and Herat, and high in the north.  UNAMA decided to ask the 
IEC to extend polling hours if possible.  There are apparently 
problems with the ink, he said, and noted that Bashardost and Ghani 
claimed their ink "washed off" their fingers; UNAMA Political 
Director Galbraith termed this a "minor issue." 
 
¶3.  (U) In one example, in Farah province most of people voting in 
the districts seem to be genuinely interested in the process and 
wish to exercise their right to vote. They have expressed optimism 
as a result of the vote and hope that their vote will bring 
prosperity and change to their areas.  The city voters seemed to be 
waiting for the heat of the day and also for news of security 
operations to control insurgents that are firing rockets 
indiscriminately into the city.  Despite taking casualties, the ANSF 
have maintained security at all the polling stations and have not 
abandoned any of the stations despite some attacks. 
 
------------- 
Voter Turnout 
------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) 
RC East: Nuristan reports that polling is taking place in the 
majority of the districts in high numbers, with reports that some 
polling sites are seeing "more voters than ever" despite some 
reports of long range attacks.  Two centers did not open due to 
destroyed ballots or security issues, despite the best efforts of 
local officials. 
Nangahar reports lines to vote, although there was one explosion 
near a mosque polling site, with no casualties.  The southern 
districts report small arms fire, but voting continues. 
Kunar reports that morning attacks throughout the province initially 
decreased turnout, but that voters had returned to the polls as of 
¶1230.  While turnout of women at Asadabad polling sites is reported 
to be strong, there has been lower female turnout in the districts. 
Kunar says voting is occurring in all sites but two. 
 
Laghman reports that many people are voting and it is peaceful 
across the province. 
RC West: Farah reports a higher than normal number of security 
incidents in the province.   Rockets have been fired into the city 
without much damage and only one reported casualty.  Other districts 
appear to be calm.  The District of Pusht Rud has expected heavy 
fighting with the ANSF and insurgent fighting pitched battles 
throughout the day. 
RC North: Balkh reports that, according to the district field 
coordinator and local staff in Watalabad district, turnout was lower 
than expected, with only 265 males and 39 females having voted as of 
12:00pm.  Following a Taliban warning the evening of August 19, IEC 
staff in Charbolak District negotiated guarantees from village 
elders and opened polling centers only one hour late. 
--------- 
Security 
--------- 
 
¶5.  (U) The traditionally dangerous areas in the South and East 
report numerous small attacks, although there have been no major 
attacks thus far that have significantly affected polling. 
 
Provincial reports by region follow: 
 
Regional Command (RC) - North: No update from sitrep five. 
 
RC South: No update from sitrep five. 
 
RC East:  Paktika reports a polling site in Naka was taking indirect 
fire, that ANSF has surrounded two suicide bombers in a madrassa in 
Orgun-East and that a rocket may have struck near the hospital in 
Orgun.  Bermel and Gomal districts also reported taking rounds. 
Paktya reports 2 IED strikes, 2 IED finds, and small arms fire with 
rockets directed at the following polling stations: Roquinan, 
Mirzaka, Ahmadabad district, and Ahmadabad DC.  There was also an 
explosion in Gardez that is being investigated. 
Khost reports an attack against a polling site in Nadar Shah Khot 
 
(no damage reported), small arms fire and RPG attacks against the 
Tani DC (no damage) and a polling site in Gorbuz district, and small 
arms fire against the Bak DC. 
Kapisa reports that people are voting, despite attacks on ANSF bases 
(four so far today). 
Logar reports that as of 13:00 there was an active gun battle 
between the Taliban and ANSF in Chark District. Villagers are 
staying indoors and not voting. 
Nangarhar reports that a possibly large Taliban force engaged the 
polling station in Pachiragem District with small arms and RPG fire. 
 
Kunar reports that attacks (small arms fire, rockets, and mortars) 
have occurred throughout Kunar Province; however, the targets are 
often not polling sites but official government buildings and 
installations. 
 
---------------------------- 
Voting & Counting Activities 
---------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) Kabul: A preliminary glance at several dozen reports from 
Embassy observers show that the overall process appears to be 
working fairly well, although the polls remain subdued.  There are 
several trends that are notable and appear to be fairly common. 
Many observers report that polling stations tended to open 15 to 30 
minutes late but without incident.  More observers noted that the 
punches used to place a hole in voter cards broke early on; this is 
an apparent widespread trend and the IEC has reportedly responded by 
ordering polling stations to cut off a corner of the card. 
¶7.  (U) Some limited incidents of the following were also reported: 
a lack of privacy in certain polling stations, where voting booths 
are in plain sight of the observers, and some of the voting booths 
at polling stations had windows behind them.  One observer reported 
that their group was not allowed entry to one polling center based 
in a mosque, and another observer noted that one polling station was 
turning away women who did not have a photo identification. 
¶8.  (U) Observers noted, on the whole, a very robust presence of 
domestic observation teams, including observers from Free and Fair 
Elections of Afghanistan (FEFA) and various candidate and polling 
agents.  Many observers report the presence of foreign press at many 
of the polling centers, including media companies from France, 
Russia, and Germany, to name a few. 
¶9. (U) TF warrior (Panjshir, Bamyan, Parwan and Kapisa) have 
confirmed with the Task Force that all tamper evidence bags for the 
voting tally sheets are on hand at each polling site in sufficient 
numbers. 
 
¶10. (U) Herat: USAID and DOS PRT reps in Herat visited nine polling 
centers beginning in Herat City and including Koshann, Forgan and 
Ingil.  There were no significant incidents to report and all 
polling sites appeared well-organized.  There were no significant 
complaints from observers.  There was appropriate ANP presence at 
all polling centers they visited.  PRT observers reported they were 
very well received at every polling center.  The only problems they 
reported were malfunctioning hole punchers at every stop, and 
officials were using scissors to mark ID cards.  There are very few 
travelers on the roads in Herat. 
 
¶11.  (U) Voting and Counting Activities: Paktika in RC East reports 
that in Terwa and War Mamay the IEC met requests for additional 
balloting material by shifting material within the district and that 
calls for additional materials are growing, particularly in Western 
Paktika. 
----- 
Fraud 
----- 
 
¶12. (U) As of 1500 Local the IEC announced they have addressed the 
following fraud issues so far: 
 
-Regarding Bashardost's claim of ink wearing off, the IEC is 
investigating, but said it is not a serious issue.  Note: some of 
our observers in Kabul say the ink bottles were not shaken enough. 
 
-On complaints about punch cards not working, the IEC is telling 
polling centers to cut the edges of voter registration cards with 
scissors instead. 
 
-Regarding IEC receiving calls about a lack of ballots, the IEC said 
they were sending extra ballots to locations as needed. 
 
IEC head Dr. Ludin also reported that that a majority of polls were 
open, that no significant incidents were reported, that many 
incidents were being addressed and that complaints should be 
directed to the to ECC.  Polls were set to close at 4 p.m..  It was 
 
also reported that Afghans in line would be allowed to vote and this 
could take as long as an hour.  Luddin added that a polling center 
in Sping Boldak district of Kandahar and another polling center in 
New Baghlan district of Baghlan province were closed down due to 
security problems. 
¶13.  (U) Re: Farid Zekria's earlier complaint that the Kandahar 
chief of police refused to give vehicle permits to Abdullah's group 
of candidate agents (SITREP) the ECC said the reports are not 
accurate and the incident did not occur. 
 
¶14.  (U) The IEC now says the first partial presidential election 
results will be announced August 25 -- not/not Aug 23 as previously 
announced by Dr. Najafi.  The IEC reiterated voters in line at 1600 
will have their votes honored, but could not extend hours too late, 
if at all, because vote counting needs to start as soon as possible 
tonight.  The IEC press officer told us 6500 of 6521 polls had 
opened. 
 
Again, IEC's main message was "polls are open, we're working w/ 
security forces to deal w/ things, and Afghans should get out and 
vote before 1600." 
 
¶15.  (U) Ghazni cites reports that there has been no voting in 
Khogyani because election materials never left the District Center, 
and the DC has been under attack since early this morning.  They 
note unconfirmed speculation that officials in Khogyani may have 
wanted to stuff the ballot boxes, though they are reported to be 
preoccupied with fighting right now.  Farah says there have been no 
reported irregularities in any of the polling centers; the primary 
disruption has been security incidents near the polling centers 
where ANSF have engaged alongside CF Taliban units roaming the 
countryside. 
-------------- 
Public Affairs 
-------------- 
 
¶16.  (U) PUBLIC AFFAIRS UPDATES: 
MFA spokeman's brief press conference at 11:30 a.m. this morning 
reaffirmed the international and national media ban on reporting 
security incidents, in effect until 5:00 p.m..  Foreign press 
reportedly encountered some issues - according to the Dutch 
Ambassador, a photographer was held for half an hour - but in 
general were not impeded from their work.  Many consider the ban to 
be unenforceable. 
AFGHAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS 
Other Top Stories: 
-Police shoot dead 3 suicide bombers in Paktia, 2 men trying to 
locate explosives near polling stations in Gardez arrested by police 
 
-Gen. Zahir Azimi spokesman to the Afghan Ministry of Interior in an 
interview with Tolo TV said police on Thursday had shot dead three 
would-be suicide bombers near polling stations in southeastern 
Paktya provinces while according to Azimi two other men trying to 
locate explosives near a polling station in Gardez the capital of 
the province were arrested by police. 
-Boys under the voting age vote in eastern Laghman province 
-Tolo TV reporter in Alingar district of eastern Laghman province 
says he had seen boys under the voting age (18) at the polling 
stations were holding voting cards. The reporter also says an armed 
clash had erupted between police and militants in Ali Shing district 
of the province. 
-Rockets fired on Lashkar Gah City killing 1 child, injuring some 
others 
-Tolo TV reporter in Lashkar Gah the capital of southern Helmand 
province says six rockets were fired on the city thursday morning 
one of which hit a residential house killing a child and injuring a 
number of others. According to reporter rockets were also reportedly 
fired on Sangin and Garem Sir districts of the province late 
Wednesday night. 
District police chief shot dead Habibur Rehman Sherzai 
-Pahjwok News reported that militants gunned down a district police 
chief and wounded three policemen in northern Baghlan province on 
Thursday.  The report said that Col. Gul Agha, Central Baghlan 
district crimes branch chief, confirmed Muhammad Afzal was killed in 
a Taliban attack on his residence in Pashayee.  Some fighters were 
also reportedly killed in a clash touched off by the attack, Agha 
said without giving an exact number of militant casualties. Three 
policemen suffered injuries in the exchange of fire. 
-Pahjwok News reportered that  more than 30 polling stations 
remained closed in southeastern Paktia province after election staff 
refused to turn up for duty due to security concerns.  Police chief 
Brig. General Aziz Ahmad Wardak also reported that voting was 
cancelled in Zurmat and Janikhel districts and provincial capital 
Gardez to keep election officials from being harmed. 
-Pahjwok News also quoted a resident of Zurmat who said there was no 
 
one at the polling centers after the  Taliban distributed  letters 
that warned people to refrain from voting.  The same report quoted a 
12 year old girl at Gardez Girls High School who said election 
offials did not ask their ages and that she and several other 
similar aged girls had voter cards and were prepared to vote. 
-Afghans Vote Amid Violence but Turnout Uncertain 
The New York Times reported that Afghans were voting despite Taliban 
threats.  It also reported an unconfirmed incident in the city of 
Kandahar in which insurgents staged a roadblock and hanged two 
voters who had ink stained fingers. 
-Afghan Media Highlights: 
Pajhwok News Agency reported that residents of Chak and Jaghato 
districts were attacked as Taliban insurgents closed the roads on 
polling day in central Maidan Wardak province, local residents said. 
 
 
BBC reported that Pakistan's border with Afghanistan was closed 
Thursday and security forces were on alert as Afghans voted in 
national elections under threat of Taliban attacks. 
 
Pajhwok News Agency reported that more than 30 polling stations 
stayed closed in Paktia province after election staff refused to 
turn up for duty due to security concerns. 
 
Pajhwok News Agency reported that militants fired rockets into a 
polling centre in Kunduz province while a bomb blast took place near 
the police headquarters in Takhar. 
 
Radio Azadi reported that in several districts of Nangarhar province 
women did not vote because of the lack of female workers at the 
polling centers at the districts. 
 
Radio Azadi reported that the number of female voters were higher 
than the male voters in Kunar province. 
 
Tolo TV reported that Governor of Balkh said that some people 
brought bleach to the province to remove the ink from their fingers. 
 The governor also claimed that some people have several voters' 
cards. 
 
Radio Salam Watandar reported that Taliban militants fired three 
rockets into the city of Farah province.  No reports of casualties 
so far. 
 
EIKENBERRY