Security tight for Afghan elections; Taliban attacks feared

KABUL - Afghan voters were receiving contradictory messages Friday, less than 24 hours before parliamentary elections, with threats from the Taliban who were calling for a boycott and reassurances from government officials, promising adequate security.

Extra police and soldiers were deployed throughout the country to prevent the Taliban from derailing Saturday’s vote, including new checkpoints across Kabul.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zamarai Bashary said at least 52,000 police officers, including 5,000 policewomen, were positioned in nearly 6,000 polling stations.

Around 63,000 Afghan soldiers were to provide security for the outer perimeters of the polling sites while 150,000 NATO-led foreign troops would be standing by.

Afghan forces were also deployed to the hills and mountains that circle Kabul while NATO said its forces would monitor the capital with a blimp equipped with high-tech cameras.

Despite the presence of more than 400,000 Afghan and international forces, election authorities said more than 1,000 polling stations in the south and east of the country could not be opened for security reasons, denying around 1.5 million Afghans the possibility of voting.

Wary of attacks, the UN reportedly evacuated about a third, or roughly 300, of its permanent international workers out of the country. The remaining staff were to operate under strict security restrictions.

After the August 2009 presidential election, five UN workers were killed when suspected Taliban militants attacked their guesthouse in Kabul.

The militants repeated their intention to derail Saturday’s vote with bombings.

“We call on our Muslim nation to boycott this process and thus foil all foreign processes and drive away the invaders from your country by sticking to jihad and Islamic resistance,” a Taliban statement posted online said.

The militants carried out a record number of attacks during last year’s presidential elections. The attacks did not disrupt the vote but caused a lower turnout and prompted Afghans to question the legitimacy of their government.

At least three candidates and more than a dozen campaign workers have been killed by suspected Taliban militants in the past two months.

An estimated 12.5 million people are eligible to vote for around 2,500 candidates, who are vying for 249 parliamentary seats in the elections that cost around $150 million.

Many of the candidates have said they were concerned about irregularities after last year’s fraud-tainted election, in which President Hamid Karzai was re-elected.

Analysts said they believe the results of the race, which were expected to be available by late October, would produce a weak parliament and were unlikely to affect Karzai’s administration.

They also predicted that the president’s allies would manipulate the vote to produce an obedient parliament.