One man’s efforts to tell people about the elections

6 Aug 2009

One man’s efforts to tell people about the elections

KABUL - The last three months have been very busy for Mastali Niazi as he tries to meet hundreds of people and educate them about the elections.

Mr Niazi, 48, is a university lecturer in Nangarhar province, who has defied all the odds to become an election civic educator and teach the staff members of governmental and non-governmental organizations in Nangarhar about the upcoming elections.

The university lecturer-turned-civic educator – employed by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) – says it’s not so easy to convince the administrators of the numerous organizations to devote their working time to organize a gathering in their offices in order to understand the intricacies of the 20 August presidential and provincial council elections.

“I am satisfied with my work, and the election awareness programme amongst the people is going very well in Jalalabad city as well as in rural areas,” Mr Mastali told UNAMA after giving one of his civic-education classes to more than 20 staff members of the Mercy Corps International office in Jalalabad.

“At the beginning of our outreach programmes, some people participate with less enthusiasm, but later on, they get interested, listen to us carefully and ask questions, because they realize, step by step, that there are many important points which they want to know, especially the new changes in the mechanism, for example, counting of ballots in the same polling centres,” added Mastali.

“Many people, including women, intend to participate in the election but some of them are worried about the security of the polling centres. We hope the government will provide a secure environment on the Election Day in all the centres, especially, in the female polling centres.”

According to Ruhullah Mumand, a civic education officer in the Nangarhar Provincial Office of the election commission, Mr Mastali is one of the very active male civic educators. “He organized more than 100 public gatherings at different organizations in Nangarhar, such as boys’ schools, governmental and non-governmental organizations’ offices, and some business companies,” said Mr Mumand.

Jamil Kunari is a Community Mobilization Coordinator at the Mercy Corps International office and one of the participants at the recent gathering.

“During the last election, I worked as a civic educator. I know very well the significance of such gatherings. That is why I did my best to help Mastali in organizing this gathering in our office. Although, some of our staff members did not want to agree with me because of the workload, but I was able to encourage and convince them to hear and know more about the election and participating in the presidential and provincial council elections,” said Mr Jamil. “The election awareness programme in our office was very useful. Our colleagues learned many things and received interesting information on the election and its rules and principles.”

“I am very happy for the forthcoming elections which are being conducted by the Afghan Government. The first presidential and parliamentary elections were led by the international community but now, luckily, our Afghan brothers and sisters are able to take the lead in the elections. It’s a remarkable achievement, and we should thank the international community for helping us. We have to vote for the candidates who are capable to serve the people, and the women should take an active part in the all fields of our life, including the election,” said Ziba Jabarkhil, a community mobilization officer at Mercy Corps.

“Many women are worried about the security in the polling centres on Election Day, therefore, I would like to suggest if the Government and Independent Election Commission could launch more awareness programmes and assure the people about the security, before the Election Day,” she added.

Mir Usman Miakhin, 28, is another civic educator working in the same group with Mr Mastali.

“I am very happy with my work but disappointed because some people, even the staff members of organizations do not allow us to post civic education materials on their walls, and tear down our posters. Although, we explain them that all these materials are for their awareness, but they still think that these depend on particular candidates,” said Mr Miakhil.

A total of 100 civic educators, divided into 50 groups including female groups, are working in Nangarhar province. There are eight groups in Jalalabad city and 42 groups in the 22 districts.

By Shafiqullah Waak, UNAMA

Website: Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan