The second presidential election in the history of Afghanistan took place on August 20, 2009 with the participation of 41 candidates. The preparation for the presidential election started in the beginning of 2009 with more attention directed at developing a new strategy to combat the insurgency. Afghanistan is still experiencing a young political system, a weak institutional system, a large role assumed by foreign donor governments and an unraveling security situation. Besides these existing challenges, the international community and Afghan government started early on to design a new plan in preparation for the election, taking into consideration additional security requirements, election monitoring and observation, voter registration and civic education needs. To that end, the Independent Election Commission (IEC), an Afghan institution supported financially by the international community, was tasked with voter registration and information dissemination. In parallel, the Election Complaint Commission (ECC) was also a partner to the process, assessing the candidates' past records and qualifications to ensure they were eligible for the candidacy status. Many media outlets ran special election programming, conducted interviews with candidates and organized live debates during which callers could ask the candidates questions. The election campaigns provided the Afghan people with an opportunity to engage in an experiment for broader discussion on the candidates' qualifications, their political agendas and their vision for the future of the country.
There was substantive discussion on key issues, but much of the programming on larger broadcasting networks focused on individual campaign events. A wide range of international organizations were involved in activities such as civic education, training of political parties, logistics, security, information dissemination, monitoring and observation and election administration. Many Afghan civil society organizations (CSOs) were also engaged in civic education related activities nationwide, and many of them were largely involved with the tasks of monitoring and observation. International analysts following the Afghan elections have been largely preoccupied with speculations over who will win; the most likely scenarios in terms of election results and their implications; voter turnout; and incidents of militant attacks against polling stations or acts of intimidation. Based on different levels of assessment three main challenges were identified before the election: namely, violence and security, questions about the integrity of the voter registry and the lack of adequate monitoring before, during and after the elections. The increased level of insurgency had a relatively larger impact on the election planning process. Insurgent activities reached out to Northern and Western Afghanistan and almost the entire country was faced with an escalation of violence.
In the run-up to the voting, there was a widely held perception among the Afghan populace that the election was fixed by international actors, factional deal-making or by fraud. Suspicions of international meddling typically have been motivated by the provision of funding for security support, logistics and technical advice and earlier decisions such as the delay in the date of the election. Similar to the perceptions trend indicated in the 2004 presidential election, this time also a larger number of the population's views were the same.
But there is cause to see the 2009 presidential election through an optimistic lens. Despite the dramatic fall of security in Afghanistan, several persistent issues of concern and the challenges faced by the country and its people, there is clear evidence that the seeds of democracy have been sown, and that the people have embraced the democratic process. It is important to create a political culture that is defined by the principles of tolerance and co-existence, a shared and consensus based political agenda and a commitment to peaceful negotiation in Afghanistan. For the first time, the election campaign and the debates among the presidential candidates were framed around their political views and policy proposals, and not by violence. The wide coverage of the campaigns by the national media engaged Afghans in a genuine discussion on the most pressing issues that will largely determine the fate of the country, such as economic development, the course of Afghanistan's foreign policy, women's rights, and the goal of state-building.
Clearly, Afghanistan's closely watched and guarded election, with military and international forces still very much present in the country, demonstrate that there is still a long and difficult way to go. But Afghanistan can be guided in a better direction if the encouraging signs of an emerging political culture are cultivated and empowered. Progress can be attained on key confidence building measures if destabilizing factors such as fraud and corruption are handled in the future with more precise and strategic preventive actions.
To overcome election concerns in the future, national government institutions must be empowered and Afghan CSOs should provide enough capacity to monitor and observe the election process. Voter education and registration processes should be initiated earlier than what was planned and executed in this past election, and the media should be supported so that capacity and operational gaps are overcome in order to improve election reporting. Furthermore, there needs to be a greater and more deliberate focus on building a consensus as to how the Afghan political system can be more functional, transparent and representative, ending the current over-reliance on a largely unaccountable executive that has encouraged an ever-growing culture of impunity. More focus is needed to build the capacity of state institutions in order to create more transparency and accountability in election processes. Capacity building programs designed for government institutions and Afghan CSOs should be further encouraged to Afghanize the election process through Afghan leadership. Embedding democratic norms and building accountable institutions can better ensure people representation and a sustainable political culture in future elections to be held in Afghanistan.

Nilofar Sakhi is country director of the Foundation of the Open Society Institute Afghanistan (FOSIA) based in Kabul.