Candidates for Parliament, mainly women, are facing assassination and intimidation by insurgents, and rival candidates in Afghanistan, reports Human Rights Watch (HWR).
Since the election campaign started in June, four parliamentary candidates, most of them women, have been killed in the country.
“Insurgent violence, particularly against women candidates, was inevitable, but the government’s weak response was not,” wrote Rachel Reid, Afghanistan researcher at Human Right Watch, in the report released Thursday.
“Taliban attacks and the broad lack of confidence in the Afghan government to conduct a secure election threatens its validity,” she wrote.
Parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place on Sept. 18, the second ones since the demise of the Taliban movement in 2001.
Last year, presidential and provincial elections were also accompanied by widespread violence, poor security, and allegations of serious corruption, the rights group says.
The Taliban has so far claimed responsibility for killing three parliamentary candidates. However, it is not clear who is responsible for the murder of a fourth candidate at the end of August.
In a statement by Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid in early September, he bluntly conveyed the Taliban’s attitude and intentions.
“Everyone affiliated with the election is our target—candidates, security forces, campaigners, election workers, [and] voters are all our targets,” Mujahid told reporters in Afghanistan.
Candidates, members of Parliament, election officials, and monitors have complained to HRW about the government’s failure to provide proper protection.
Election campaign staff for parliamentary candidates have also been threatened and killed.
Other candidates report receiving threatening phone calls and letters demanding they withdraw their candidacy.
Ten people working for one female candidate, Fauzia Gailani, from western Herat Province were abducted in late August. Gailani has received messages, reading that if she withdrew her candidacy, her staff would be released, HRW reported.
There is also an open practice of candidates dangerously threatening other candidates. During the election campaign, Mawlawi Shahzada, a member of Parliament and candidate in the eastern province of Kunar categorized a female candidate, Wagma Safi, an “infidel.” Shahzada has said that anyone who supports and votes for Safi would be considered an infidel.
“We ask Taliban to respect the choices of those who wish to participate in the elections,” said a statement by Nader Nadery, chairman of Afghan nongovernmental election observer and advocacy organization (FEFA).
Election campaign staff have also become victims of NATO’s air strikes, media reports have said. Ten people were killed in Takhar Province on Aug. 2.
HRW said that the Aghan government had promised to provide the candidates with security personnel, but they have not yet materialized.
“It is astonishing, given the threats and attacks, that the government continues to respond so inadequately to the security needs of women running for parliamentary seats,” Reid said.
The Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM), an independent Afghan rights watchdog monitoring human rights violations across the country, said in a report that 2010 has been the worst year in terms of insecurity since the fall of the Taliban regime with insurgents becoming “more resilient, multistructured, and deadly.”
More than 1,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in armed violence and security incidents in the last six months, according to the ARM report.
“In this tense political environment, these elections could have wide-reaching ramifications for Afghanistan’s future stability,” Reid said.
