On September 20, 2010, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban's shadow government in Afghanistan) issued two statements, claiming to have "foiled" the September 18 parliamentary vote and noting that Taliban fighters launched 739 attacks across the country that day.
More than 2,500 candidates, including 400 women, ran for the 249 seats of Wolesi Jirga (the lower house of Afghanistan) during the parliamentary election. The Independent Election Commission (IEC) of Afghanistan has said that the preliminary results of the vote will be announced on October 8.
On September 19, a day before the Taliban statement was issued, IEC chief Fazal Ahmad Manawi told reporters that 4 million Afghans voted, which represents a voter turnout of more than 40 percent.[1] Some media reports have put the voter turnout as low at 27 percent. However, the IEC admitted that 304 polling centers were closed due to security threats and that 20 voters were killed by militants.
The Taliban statements, published on the Taliban's official website sahmat.info, urged the international community to reject the outcome of the elections, observing: "all the public of the world should reject all anti-Afghan intrigues of the invaders, particularly, their foiled and misleading elections process; and should not recognize the would-be selected surrogates as the genuine representatives of our nation."
Following are excerpts from the statements:
"Polling Stations Remained Closed in 162 Districts; 1,260 Polling Stations Closed Before 11 AM"
The first Taliban statement read:
"Viewing that the mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan foiled the so-called elections process of the parliament on September 18as they have already foiled other conspiracies with the help of Allah (SwT) and the help of the Mujahid people of Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, therefore, congratulates the mujahid nation, particularly the heroic mujahideen, on this victory and the resulting disgrace to the enemy. Hence, it declares as follows:
"1. The [a]wake and brave nation of Afghanistan positively responded to the call of the Islamic Emirate not to participate in the misleading elections under the American process. Avoiding participation in this process, the majority [of the] people of Afghanistan unquestionably rejected the elections. Therefore, the results of the elections are not acceptable to them.
"2. Polling stations remained closed in 162 districts... 1,260 polling stations closed before 11 AM. Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate... attacked 480 polling centers. Only in [the] capital Kabul and provincial cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, and a few other provincial cities, some government employees went to the polling stations to cast votes. So these elections were only limited to the administrative employees of the Kabul stooge administration and which, ironically, the pro-government media still calls as elections. Therefore, the outcome of the so-called elections has no legal credibility.
"3. The freedom-loving people of Afghanistan practically showed that they are against the foreigners and their flunkies by not participating in the so-called election process conducted by the invaders and their surrogates. So the invading forces should take a lesson from this fiasco and should put an end to the occupation of Afghanistan and their hostage-taking [of] our people.
"4. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan reaffirms to the world public that neither the invading forces nor their stooge administration [of President Hamid Karzai] has hold over vast areas of the country; nor they are able to conduct fraud-free elections. They only want to pave the way for the most unscrupulous and corruption-ridden elements to grab power time and again.
"Therefore, all the public of the world should reject all anti-Afghan intrigues of the invaders, particularly, their foiled and misleading elections process; and should not recognize the would-be selected surrogates as the genuine representatives of our nation..."[2]
"The Puppet Regime [of President Karzai]... Faced Spectacular Failure Due to the People not Participating in the Voting And Also Because of Mujahideen Attacks"
Following are excerpts from the second statement:[3]
"On 27/06/1389 [of the Islamic calendar] which corresponds with 18/09/2010, the puppet regime [of Afghan President Hamid Karzai], in accordance to their invading masters, held a so-called election, which had already been rigged, to choose new members of the parliament, but faced spectacular failure due to the people not participating in the voting and also because of mujahideen attacks.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had prior rejected these so-called elections, had asked the Afghan people not to participate in this American process and had given orders to mujahideen to attack the polling stations and the enemy forces stationed for their protection. The people of Afghanistan and the mujahideen responded to this just call and with the help of Allah (SwT); mujahideen were able to disrupt the so-called election process by staging a large amount of attacks.
"Because of the vast number of attacks, a table has been made to show the regions and the number of attacks that took place.
1. Even the puppet government has admitted to 450 attacks.
2. Out of the 360 districts in the country, 162 districts did not even open the polling stations; 1,260 polling stations closed at 11:00 am and the rest of the polling stations came under mujahideen attacks.
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3. With the exception of a few isolated regions, all the main roads of the country were closed down and were under the watchful eyes of mujahideen.
4. After the voting officially closed at 4:00pm, mujahideen attacked and destroyed the vehicles carrying the voting boxes in many areas.
"In light of the following points, the so-called election processes was a complete disaster. The election is not valid under any existing laws, and therefore the results should be rejected."
The above statement is accompanied by the following table:
No. – Location – Number of Attacks
1 – Kabul – 9
2 – Kunduz – 18
3 – Kunar – 27
4 – Kandahar – 58
5 – Laghman – 17
6 – Helmand – 29
7 – Paktia – 40
8 – Herat – 37
9 – Logar – 35
10 – Parwan – 24
11 – Balkh – 8
12 – Zabul – 25
13 – Jozjan – 7
14 – Badaghshan – 3
15 – Ghazni – 62
16 – Maidan-Wardag – 40
17 – Nangarhar – 79
18 – Ghor – 5
19 – Takhar – 16
20 – Sar-e-Pul – 8
21 – Smangan – 9
22 – Khost – 52
23 – Paktika – 64
24 – Nooristan – 10
25 – Baghlan – 19
26 – Kapisa – 21
27 – Badghees – 7
28 – Farah – 16
29 – Uruzgan – 19
30 – Nimroz – 9
31 – Faryab – 6
Total = 739
[1] www.tolonews.com (Afghanistan), September 19, 2010.
[2] www.sahmat.info (Afghanistan), September 20, 2010. The text of the statements have been lightly edited for clarity.
[3] www.sahmat.info (Afghanistan), September 20, 2010.
