Afghanistan: democracy as publicity stunt

This article was published in Spiked-Online 20 September 2010

Saturday’s elections were more about giving a shot in the arm to Western politicians than giving control to Afghanis.

As Afghans prepared to go to the polls in Saturday’s delayed parliamentary elections, it became clear that there are two Afghanistans today. The first is a Western fantasy; the second is the Afghan reality.

The parliamentary elections took place in the Western-constructed fantasy Afghanistan, where coalition troops apparently fight and die in the name of democracy-building. The West has sponsored and organised regular Afghani elections (including picking the candidates) as well as held public discussions in the West - with members of the political and media elites discussing concerns about corruption, how to consolidate the legitimacy of current Afghan president Hamid Karzai, and how to ensure elections in Afghanistan are free, fair and legitimate.

The record of elections in post-invasion and occupation Afghanistan has so far not been good. Last year, the presidential elections were marked by vast fraud, with the United Nations claiming that a third of the votes cast for the West’s hand-picked candidate Karzai were faked.