Evening Standard
By Jerome Starkey in Lashkar Gah
FEWER than half of Helmand’s polling stations opened this morning as Afghanistan began a landmark ballot to pick its next president.
Security fears left 115 sites closed across huge swathes of the province still under Taliban control.
Insurgents have threatened to attack polling stations with suicide bombers and chop off the fingers of people who vote. Despite pressure from the president, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) refused to open polling stations in areas beyond the reach of soldiers and police.
Just 107 polling sites opened in pockets of the province controlled by Nato and the Afghan government, the head of Helmand’s IEC told the Standard. “We’re prepared for up to 350,000 people to vote,” said Engineer Abdul Hadi. “But only god knows how
many people will come.”
Britain suffered its bloodiest month since 2001 trying to make key parts of the province safe enough for the ballot.
But, despite more than 12,000 foreign troops, officials predict a maximum turnout of only 40 per cent.
The election is a watershed in Western-led efforts to build a peaceful democracy, but a low turnout may threaten the legitimacy of the result.
President Hamid Karzai is desperate for votes in Pashtun heartlands, such as Helmand and Kandahar, but many of his key constituencies are areas where the insurgency is strongest.
Governor Gulab Mangal said there were three Helmand districts where there are no polling sites at all, including Washir, next to Britain’s main base, Camp Bastion, and Bagran in the far north of the province.
Security there is much worse than at Lashkar Gah, but insurgents have done their best to disrupt voting here as well.
Taliban checkpoints a few miles outside the city have blocked roads to stop people travelling to vote.
Locals in Marja are allowed to leave the district only with special Taliban travel permits, signed by the local commander.
“I’ve been waiting to come back for two days,” said Rahmatullah, 43, as he reached a bridge on the city outskirts yesterday that links Lashkar Gah with no-man’s land.
