Across from our office voters are being registered for the September parliamentary elections. I was driving with five of my Afghan colleagues into town. I asked them whether they were registered. They all nodded, but immediately added that they were not going to vote again. With the typical western indignation I gave the typical western response: if you don’t vote you can’t complain.
But I quickly found out that that was a very silly remark that showed I had no idea about voting here. My colleagues patiently explained that they had voted for a particular guy in the previous elections and that their votes were pursued with a friendliness and sincerity that lasted until the elections were over. Once elected their (successful) candidates surrounded themselves with bodyguards and became, what my colleagues called, ‘commanders,’ building five story houses and ignoring their constituents, or at least those who weren’t paying for access.
The democratic process, as we know it, however flawed it may be in my two home countries, bears very little resemblance to what masquerades here as parliamentary elections (or presidential for that matter). Are these simply an infant democracy’s teething problems? Or what?
Sylvia's Journal 
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