KABUL (SW) – The electoral campaign for the forthcoming Wolesi Jirga (lower house) elections would conclude on Wednesday amid loud claims by the candidates to bring reforms, end poverty and eradicate graft.
Salam Watandar conducted a thorough study of the electoral slogans and manifestoes of the candidates in bid to inform and educate the potential voters about the plans and pledges of the candidates. The report has a brief overview of the candidates’ campaign in terms of slogans, pledges, mode of communication etc.
The study gives an impression that many WJ hopefuls are either unaware about the roles and responsibilities of an MP or they presume the parliament as a different entity than what the actual purpose of it is.
The slogans chanted in this campaign are literally covering all aspects of life ranging from bringing security to the country, ending poverty, corruption and ethnic rift to self-reliance and even fixing the traffic issues in the capital, Kabul.
For instance, a candidate has the slogan of ‘we are rising’, another one has propagated the idea of ‘knowledge and wisdom’ while a third candidate is promoting ‘Islamic Hijab’.
Abdul Hadi Arghandiwaal, a leader of the Hezb-e-Islami party, is in the electoral battle with slogans to protect and promote Islamic values, social justice, national unity, peace, service to the people and fight against corruption. Arghandiwaal admits such slogans are not directly linked to the legislative process, but the HI leader added his campaign is not confined to the WJ alone.
Haseen Sahak, a female candidate, has the slogan of ‘peace, security and education’, Abdul Qayume Kherkhwa, has ‘peace, law and order, and jobs’ as his slogans while Mustafa Sultani is promising his voters he is ‘seeking peace and justice’ for the people. We wished to the views of all these three candidates. Among the three, only Mustafa Sultani agreed to comment, but he too did not share his views after asking for some time to deliberate upon the matter.
There are even more slogans with quotes from known figures, poetry and catchy deceiving phrases such as ‘representative of the generation of knowledge and wisdom’, ‘standing alongside one another and building together’, ‘our word is action, not slogan’, ‘we have come to revive the hopes’, ‘my Kabul, peace and development is your right’, ‘voice of the silent majority’ and ‘equal development, social justice and national partnership’.
Analyst of political affairs, Farooq Bashar, told Salam Watandar most of the candidates propagating such loud claims are either unaware about the jurisdictions of the WJ or are simply trying to fool the masses. He noted Article 91 of the Constitution has clearly underlined the authorities of the parliamentarians. Article 92 of the Constitution notes that the WJ members can impeach a minister, can decide about development and expenditure budgets and approve or disapprove the appointments.
A number of candidates can been seen exploiting portraits of the Jihadi, political and religious figures for their electoral campaign. Others have opted for different ways and means to attract attention of the voters.
Findings by Salam Watandar indicate at least 30 candidates in Kabul alone have similar or identical slogans. Ahmad Shakib Farahi and Mohammad Laiq Malikzada are chanting for ‘today’s plans, tomorrow’s development’, Mohammad Yonus Hotak, Mawla Gul Ahmadzai, Shenkai Karokhail, Qaisullah Samkani, Eidi Mohammad Shariqi, Zmarak Fadkhwabi, Noorur Rehman Akhlaqi and Taj Mohammad Mujahed have the slogans of ‘promise and action’.
Another group of candidates including Gen. Abdul Wahid Taqat, Fareed Khan Zurmati and Jalat Khan Shenozada share the slogan of ‘Humanity, Islamism and Afghanism’ while Haji Zargay Habibi, Javed Kohistani and Mohammad Hashim Karimi have the slogan of ‘beyond political parties, uniting with the people’.
On top of this, some candidates seem to be paying no attention to their campaigns with evident grammatical mistakes in their campaign material.
Syed Hafeezullah Hashimi, spokesman for the Independent Election Commission, told SW that the electoral commission has not issued any guidelines in regard to the composition of the campaign material.
The findings also indicate that up to 70 per cent of the candidates have not marked their contact details and up to 50 per cent have not mention their corresponding page number of the voting paper on their campaign materials. Some have even mentioned wrong page number.
Despite all this, this democratic exercise has provided a platform and opportunity to learn from the mistakes for the better performance in the future.
ENDS
