Parliamentary Elections, 18 September 2005

The OSCE Permanent Council Decision 686, dated 7 July 2005, decided to send to Afghanistan, a cooperation partner of the OSCE, an Election Support Team (EST). The decision followed separate invitations to the OSCE from the Afghan Foreign Minister and the Chair of the Afghan Joint Election Management Body, to observe the elections to the National Assembly.

The EST mandate was to analyse key elements of the election environment, including the electoral system, campaign and legislation; the electoral administration; voter registration; counting and vote tabulation; and the complaints and appeals process. It was also to prepare recommendations for improving future elections and for transferring election administration skills and resources to the national authorities. The mandate did not exclude giving advice to the authorities even during the elections as necessary.

According to the final report: “The Afghan political landscape is still dominated not by parties but by individuals. Political parties are nascent and viewed by some with suspicion. The Single Non-transferable vote electoral system, under which all candidates run as independents, reflected and also perpetuated personality-based politics. It did little to aid political party development. Very large ballots (Six pages and 380 candidates in Kabul) complicated logistics, polling and especially the count.”