With Parliamentary elections scheduled for September, many Afghans are re-examining their commitment to the democratic process. Observers say that this is in large part this is due to the widespread fraud and bitter aftermath of last year’s presidential poll.

“In my opinion, there is little sense in participating in election and casting votes,” said Farhad Mansoor, a resident of Kabul who works for an international non-governmental organization. “The election will not be transparent, so voting is useless. People’s votes were ignored during the August presidential elections. Fraud committed by the staff of the Independent Election Commission determined the result. That same commission still exists.”

The August elections were marred by systematic ballot-rigging, as determined by both domestic and international bodies. The Electoral Complaints Commission eventually tossed out over 1.2 million votes, the majority of them for incumbent President Hamid Karzai. The drawn-out wrangling that followed the election, in which Karzai and his team were pitted against independent monitoring bodies, has left a sour taste in the mouths of many voters.

“After the fall of the Taliban regime, people were optimistic about democracy and civil rights,” said Frozan Rahmani, a student at Kabul University. “But unfortunately the controversial elections for president and provincial council with the alleged fraud committed by the IEC, has made people pessimistic. The IEC has not changed its structure at all – this makes people doubt that the upcoming election will be fair and transparent.”

But Qadeer Hamdard, a government employee, disagrees.

“Elections face challenges in every country,” he said. “The loser always disputes the results. I think Karzai won in the first round, but because of political reasons the election went to a runoff.”

Once the complaints commission had examined and invalidated close to one-third of the votes, Karzai lacked the 50-percent-plus-one total needed for a first round victory. He was forced to accept a runoff against his main challenger, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. The vote did not take place; Abdullah refused to take part in what he said was a flawed process.

Hamdard is convinced that Afghan voters are willing and able to participate fully in the next elections.

“People have gone through various elections in the past eight years, and they now understand their role,” he said. “They will participate widely in the parliamentary elections, and will vote for the candidate of their choice.”

Over the past eight years Afghanistan has held five elections – two for president, two for provincial council, and one for parliament. But the turnout has been decreasing steadily, and many worry that this reflects a waning faith in democracy itself.

In the first presidential elections in 2004, the average turnout was close to 75 percent, according to Joint Electoral Management Body, which was responsible for conducting elections. By the 2005 elections for parliament and provincial council, that number had dropped to 45 percent. The controversial elections in August, for president and provincial council, showed a marked drop from the 2005 figure – some say as low as 25 percent.

Exact numbers are hard to come by, since there is no accepted tally of the number of registered voters, thought to be between 12 and 16 million.

Jandad Spinghar, Head of Afghanistan Free and Fair Election Foundation (FEFA), believes that the plummeting turnout is due to the IEC’s bias towards a particular candidate in the 2009 elections, as well as a lack of faith that votes really count.

“After the collapse of the Taliban, people were eager to participate in the 2004 presidential elections,” he said. “But unfortunately, Karzai’s administration was too weak to give the people what they needed, and this has become worse with each passing year.”

In addition, said Spinghar, the IEC did not fulfill its role as an impartial entity during the 2009 elections, and this destroyed people’s confidence in the transparency of the elections. Therefore, they are less likely to participate.

Political analyst Zia Danish agrees.

“The widespread fraud in August, 2009, and failure by the government and the international community to address this issue has made people mistrust the upcoming elections,” he said.

But Zulfiqar Omid, who worked for Karzai’s election campaign and is now the leader of the Labor and Development Party, blames low turnout of insecurity. The Taliban had threatened to cut off the finger of anyone who participated in the elections. Voters had to dip their right index finger in a bottle of indelible ink to prevent multiple voting.

“Unfortunately, the security situation has deteriorated significantly since 2004,” he said. “People even lost their lives by voting. I am sure that if the security situation improves people will participate widely in the parliamentary elections.

FEFA’s Spinghar, accepts that insecurity played a role in the low turnout in 2009, but denies that it was the main factor.

“Despite all of the threats, people went to the polling stations in the last elections,” he said. “Some lost body parts or even their lives. But unfortunately their votes were ignored and the results were not transparent. If there is no change in the structure of the IEC, then how can people believe in the transparency of the elections?”

After the 2009 presidential elections, the United Nations and other international bodies asked for changes in the IEC, to restore people’s faith in the commission and in the political process. Some countries, including the United States, hinted that they would not approve the budget for the parliamentary elections unless such changes were forthcoming. But so far the heads of the IEC remain unchanged.

IEC officials have consistently denied allegations of fraud and bias, and they also reject the assertion that the IEC’s structure has not changed. They point to the fact that nearly 6,000 district officials were replaced after the presidential elections, and insist that all will be well in the parliamentary vote.

“We are ready for the upcoming parliamentary elections,” said Mohammad Ismail Qanai, Deputy Head of Public Relations for the IEC,  “We have put a lot of effort into assuring that this will be a fraud-free election.”