Kabul Korrespondence

Image by David Gill

The number of deaths varies between 26 and 30. But no matter how many people died on the day of elections [not to mention the 40+ dead in Kandahar the following day] most Afghans didn't flinch or even comment on the fatalities of the elections

The most over used sentence in this country is "After to 30 years of war........" But I think in this instance we have to use it [again]. After 30 years of war Afghans have become quite complacent and as matter of fact about death and high death tolls in their country.

They and the ever guilty mass-media are talking about the results of the election. With 10% of the ballots counted, Mr Karzai had 212,927 and 202,889 for Abdullah.

We all know that the numbers are manufactured outside Afghanistan and that the final result will not come from the long hours of counting ballot papers by IEC staff.

And we all know the saying 'When it bleeds it leads.' But the 20th of August is now one of the bloodiest days on count for the Afghan people. Yet the only numbers that are being discussed in a smokey tea house are fictitious ballot papers that were sometimes filled out 5 times by one lady in a burka.

[Many women did not have their photo printed on their voting registration card and did not have to lift their burka while in the voting stations. Meaning that they could visit several stations and vote again and again. As long as they brought bleach with them to wash off the indelible ink]

We can't expect the Afghan population to react to the waste of innocent lives like we Westeners based here do. But we can hope that they won't accept these false results and let another 5 years pass, drenched in the blood of their fallen fellow countrymen......