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AFGHANISTAN: 'ELECTIONS LESSONS' FOR 12 MILLION VOTERS

AFGHANISTAN: 'ELECTIONS LESSONS' FOR 12 MILLION VOTERS: "AFGHANISTAN: 'ELECTIONS LESSONS' FOR 12 MILLION VOTERS

Kabul, 13 Sept. (AKI) - (by Marco Liconti) - Explaining the electoral process in a country just opening to democracy, where 85 percent of women and 55 percent of men can't read and write, is a tall order. The mass media reaches just a fraction of the population, despite American efforts in distributing free hundreds of thousands of transistor radios. To ensure Afghans know just what to do in the 18 September elections, the Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) has adopted the concept of 'public outreach', which relies heavily on the use of images, a similar approach to that taken in India where much of the population is also illiterate.

'The JEMB has achieved a miracle from a logistic standpoint. But I have doubts on the population's civic education,' said Emma Bonino, head of the European Union mission to monitor the Afghan elections.

Since May, the JEMB has printed 15 million posters, leaflets, stickers in both Dari and Pashto - the two official languages in Afghanistan.

Simple colourful messages with brief explanations on the voting system, explains Dustin Okazaki from the JEMB. One poster explains that there are separate voting booths for women and men; another shows that the elderly and the handicapped can receive assistance in getting to the polling stations.

'Two local illustrators have created the messages, using a visual language which could be easily understood by all of the Afghan population,' said Okazaki.

Election campaign messages are broadcast on radio and TV. A free telephone number has been created to answer queries from both voters and candidates and a team of 1,800 'civic educators' have been travelling around the country, organising public gatherings in towns and villages to explain the election process.

In a system where parties are excluded, a special commission studied and selected the electoral symbols, before randomly associating them to the candidates. The symbol of a computer or of a cellular phone might favour a candidate, giving an idea of modernity. The picture of a football ball held by a bearded mullah is certainly more confusing.

Despite the efforts supplied by JEMB, Bonino is afraid that the whole process started too late, while it should have started shortly after the presidential elections in 2004, exploiting the general positive energy existing at the time."

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