On January 17, 2019, the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) organized the launching ceremony for the research paper titled “The Myth of Afghan Electoral Democracy: The Irregularities of the 2014 Presidential Election”. This paper is written by Professor Thomas H. Johnson, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) and Director of the Program for Culture and Conflict Studies at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA where he is on the faculty in the Department of National Security Affairs. This research is part of the Afghanistan Constitutional and Political System Reform Studies series of AISS. This research systematically assesses the 2014 Afghanistan Presidential Election using provincial voting data as well and explicit data from polling centers.
During this event Professor Thomas H. Johnson briefed the audiences about the report and its key findings and added the entire Afghan electoral system must be recalibrated and the best result of the 2014 Afghan Presidential Election is to draw lessons from it and these lessons should serve as an immediate mandate for changing a badly flawed system for instance; the Afghan voter registration process has to be completely revamped etc. (Skype call).
Dr. Davood Ali Najafi, former chief of the (IEC) secretariat, appreciated AISS for its academic and timely research paper and expressed the 2014 Afghanistan Presidential Election was a milestone in the history of the country because the election projected transfer of power from one person to another person peacefully but we should accept this reality which we had the electoral irregularities and flaws of 2014 presidential election. So we should learn lessons from the past and bring reform to the election system as it is the only solution for holding more democratic election.
Mr. Naeem Ayoubzada, Head of Transparent Election Foundation of Afghanistan (TEFA) said, "election is politicalizing in Afghanistan and it would be the biggest challenge in the future and added it is one of the main factors which we are able to hold a transparent election". Mr. Ayoubzada, concluded, we need to bring technical reform to the independent election commission. At the end the event was followed by a Q&A session.
Click on the link below to download the full report in Farsi and English:
The Myth of Afghan Electoral Democracy The Irregularities of the 2014 Presidential Election (Farsi)