YouSaid · the spoken record

Arnault

lines on the record: 262
first: 2004-05-27
most recent: 2018-10-10
sittings or episodes: 15
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Before and after his inauguration, the President held protracted consultations regarding the formation of his Cabinet. That was a complex exercise involving, on the one hand, the need to increase the number of qualified professionals to lead the ministries - a requirement implicit in the new Constitution and a strong popular demand - and, on the other hand, the need to ensure adequate political and ethnic representation. The outcome of those consultations was made public on 23 December. The composition of the 27-member Cabinet does indeed meet the requirements of the Afghan constitution, and all ministers have higher education and hold only Afghan citizenship. It also reflects broadly the ethnic composition of the country, with 10 Pashtuns, eight Tajiks, five Hazaras, two Uzbeks, one Turkmen and one Baloch.”
2005-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5108 (2005) · source
“Mr. Arnault: I would like to thank you, Sir, for having given me this opportunity to brief the Council at this early date on developments in Afghanistan and on our plans for the coming months. It is very gratifying that the Council has made Afghanistan one of its very first subjects for discussion on this year's agenda. The presidential election on 9 October 2004 and the recent appointment of the Cabinet have brought with them new momentum in the Afghan peace process. It is very important for the Afghans and for us in the international community to take full advantage of this circumstance, to move the Bonn agenda forcefully forward and to fulfil, as much as possible, this year, the broad objectives of the transition. As the Council is aware, on 7 December 2004 President Karzai was sworn in, together with his two vice-presidents.”
2005-01-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5108 (2005) · source
“We do not dispute in any way that the Taliban has assets and resources in the country itself, even though the outcome of the registration process and the interest and the passion for registration shown by communities in the south, south- east and east demonstrate in fact how isolated those extremist forces currently are. Among the tools that the extremist forces have at their disposal are cross-border operations and infiltration, which have been used to attack the peace process and, more specifically, to attack the electoral process. As UNAMA, we would be irresponsible if we did not appeal to the international community, to the Government of Pakistan and to the Government of Afghanistan and its national forces to put an end to that situation, particularly on the southern border.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Not only do we share that analysis, but as the Council may know, much of our mandate is directed at the need to control and contain factionalism through the DDR process, the verification of human rights and political rights and, most of all, of course, through the organization of a free and fair election in Afghanistan, the ultimate purpose of which is to create a post-war order based on popular will, not on the precarious balance of military forces that was established in the wake of the collapse of the Taliban regime. However, our contention is that today, Taliban activities are directly undermining the expression of popular will and, paradoxically, they are doing so precisely in the communities they claim to support and which we want to empower.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Allow me to reassure the Ambassador of Pakistan and the members of the Council that there is no room for political bias at the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). As a matter of fact, with regard to the overall analysis of the situation, to a very large extent we share the analysis presented by the Ambassador of Pakistan, in particular his analysis with regard to the role of factionalism in the situation of insecurity.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Since then - and that is since October of last year - as the United Nations and other organizations got involved in the DDR process in quite some detail, it appeared very clearly that in fact the troop strength of the nine corps had been vastly overstated. In several cases, when 2,000, 3,000 or 4,000 soldiers were supposed to belong to a corps, it would turn out that a maximum of 200, 300 or 400 were actually employed. That is why it is now a working assumption of the DDR process that we are talking about no more than 40,000 to 50,000 actual troops under the umbrella of the Ministry of Defence. That figure might change somewhat, but we feel fairly confident that as the DDR process progresses, we will find out in fact that the numbers are smaller rather than larger.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Mr. Arnault: I would most like, perhaps, to clarify the situation with respect to the troop strength of the Afghan military forces. As has happened in many post-conflict situations, the issue of the strength of military forces is always - or most of the time - the subject of much debate. Afghanistan was no exception. Last year, the figure initially provided by the Ministry of Defence for the total number of troops under the Ministry of Defence was approximately 700,000. After some discussion and absent any credible, verified statistics, agreement was reached in November on the working assumption of approximately 100,000 soldiers and officers for the purpose of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Good decisions in this regard will go a long way towards reassuring the population that militias will not be a factor in the upcoming elections. They will also facilitate the conclusion of the DDR process and the further expansion of the Afghan National Army. Massive popular participation in voter registration has shown how much is riding on the upcoming election. We think that an election that meets these expectations is now within reach. We need an additional effort with regard to the security of voters and electoral staff, and we need to continue to work hard on the political environment in order to ensure that it is as conducive as possible to a free and fair exercise. The Government, the contending candidates and the forces they represent, and the international community have a share of responsibility in it.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Thirteen thousand soldiers have been demobilized and the demobilization of another 10,000 would get us very close to the 60 per cent target. Indeed, it appears more and more probable that the actual number of militias is not the official 100,000 but closer to 40,000 or 50,000. In addition, in the past month, four corps commanders, in Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Kunduz, have been reassigned to civilian functions. Two of them are now chiefs of police, one is a provincial governor and the fourth one is a deputy interior minister. This gives the Ministry of Defence the opportunity to transfer command and control of these corps to professional officers, preferably trained officers of the Afghan National Army. Final discussions on these appointments are currently under way.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“The counter-narcotics police, for their part, continue to seize drugs and arrest suspects. They lack, however, the support of a fully functioning criminal justice system to prosecute drug cases fairly and efficiently. However, a project implemented by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime provides for the establishment of a specialized channel of the judicial system to handle such cases more effectively with specially trained prosecutors, judges and appropriate prison facilities. By the end of this year, we expect that the tools for a more effective law enforcement in the area of counter-narcotics should be in place. Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) and the cantonment of heavy weapons remain slow, but we continue to believe that the targets of Berlin with regard to DDR can be achieved by the time of the election.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Let me now say a few words about developments in other areas that are important to the State-building process in Afghanistan and should, hopefully, provide the next Government with better means to expand its authority. Council members know how critical the issue of counter-narcotics has become as a result of the dramatic expansion of poppy cultivation this year. In his quarterly report (S/2004/634), the Secretary- General reported on the weak outcome of the eradication effort. The eradication campaign is now over, but interdiction continues. A successful raid by the Afghan Special Narcotics Force in early August in Helmand destroyed processing equipment and over two tons of drugs. This is an indication of the increasing capability of this force, which has destroyed, in the past eight months, over 30 tons of illegal drugs.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“As reported to the Security Council earlier this year, the Constitutional Loya Jirga saw a rise in ethnic distrust and hostility and generated at the time fear that the electoral competition would further strengthen the politics of ethnicity. So far, the politics of multi-ethnicity has prevailed. In recent days, however, the tone of the political debate has become increasingly acrimonious, and we will have to watch closely how the electoral campaign unfolds. During the period of electoral campaigning between 7 September and 8 October, the nationwide verification of political rights, undertaken jointly by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and UNAMA, will continue. It will ascertain whether the rights and obligations of candidates are observed and will recommend corrective action if need be.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“The only female presidential candidate, Masuda Jalal, already competed with President Karzai at the Emergency Loya Jirga two years ago, where she arrived in second place. Three more women are competing in the election as candidates for Vice- president. The diversity of political backgrounds of the various candidates is, in itself, quite encouraging, as it shows that, at the national level at least, a meaningful political competition is seen as possible. Political diversity is supplemented by ethnic diversity. As an unintended consequence of the constitutional provision that each presidential candidate must run on a ticket with his or her two vice- presidents, candidates have been able to nominate vice- presidential candidates outside their own ethnic group. This is certainly a welcome pattern.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“The process of vetting was thorough and involved public exhibition of the list of presidential hopefuls and vetting of the applications by the Ministries of Interior, Defence and Finance, as well as the Supreme Court. Several embassies cooperated in checking whether candidates held double nationality, grounds for ineligibility under the Afghan constitution. Three candidates were alleged to maintain relationships with militias. They agreed to the Joint Electoral Management Body's proposal to have professional officers of the Afghan National Army assigned to take command of their units. The political affiliation of the candidates is quite diverse, with two being related to the royalist movement, two having achieved some prominence during the communist period, five belonging to jihadi parties and nine being broadly described as democrats.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“The campaign of civic education aimed at the refugee population in Pakistan will start on 1 September. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government of Pakistan for its cooperation in implementing this complex exercise. In Iran, where the registration of refugees was completed two years ago under the auspices of the Government and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, polling will take place in approximately 1,000 polling stations in 250 locations, and the civic education campaign will start during the first week of September. Out of the initial list of 23 applicants, 18 presidential candidates have passed the test of eligibility.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Because of the very compressed time frame, registration in Pakistan will be less than comprehensive but will still be carried out on a scale that, we believe, is acceptable. The process will start on 1 October. It will include three days of registration, two days of exhibition and challenges of the voters' list and three days for the retraining of staff. Polling day will take place, as in the rest of Afghanistan, on 9 October. Depending on the situation on the ground, registration or exhibition could be extended by one additional day. Over 1,000 registration and polling stations will be deployed in 300 locations in the refugee camps, in the north-west frontier province and Baluchistan and among urban concentrations of refugees in Peshawar and Quetta.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“They include additional trained Afghan personnel for the protection of United Nations premises and a better capacity for security information and analysis. The cost of these measures is modest and I hope they can be implemented as quickly as possible. Preparation for registration and voting in neighbouring Iran and Pakistan has, fortunately, made substantial progress since the Secretary-General's quarterly report to the Security Council (S/2004/634). Following the signing of memoranda of understanding between both Governments, as well as between the Government of Afghanistan and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the implementing partner, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), has begun to operate in both countries.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“This is an urgent matter, as the electoral campaign will start in less than two weeks and thousands of electoral staff will be involved in the preparation of polling day between now and 9 October. The presidential election can make a major contribution to the stability of Afghanistan and the consolidation of its fragile state. Its protection deserves, in our View, the highest priority, as does the protection of the lives of the electoral workers who are making it possible. Let me take this opportunity to refer briefly to the security of United Nations staff. A recent joint mission by the Office of the Security Coordinator (UNSECOORD) and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations has identified a few measures that will improve the security of United Nations staff in Afghanistan in the upcoming period.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“We are reasonably confident that these groups will not be able to undermine the electoral process at the national level. But we are concerned that violence could cause part of the population to stay away from polling sites in the south and elsewhere. That threat is compounded by the fact that security forces - both domestic and international - will be stretched thin to protect all 5,000 sites across the country. Action is therefore necessary against those who plan and organize these attacks. In this respect, we welcome the timely meeting held on Monday and Tuesday between President Musharraf and President Karzai, and we hope that enhanced cooperation between the two countries and the international forces will prevent further violence against the elections.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“The latest attack - involving six bombs going off in quick succession inside and outside a registration compound in the province of Farah - took place on 19 August, killing two policemen and injuring seven. Those forces have not been able to derail the process and have, in particular, failed spectacularly to undermine popular participation in registration in the country's east and south-east. However, as described earlier, their impact on the south has been more tangible and has deprived part of the population there of the possibility of participating in the election. What is more worrying, domestic and international security agencies concur that there are clear indications that the Taliban and similar groups are now preparing to escalate their attacks against the last stage of the election.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“That leads me to the nature of the challenges that we anticipate over the next six weeks. Difficult situations can be expected throughout the country. In recent weeks, factional rivalries have led to the temporary closure of registration sites in several provinces, including most recently in Badghis and Ghor, in connection with factional Violence there. However, although factional violence has occasionally affected registration, it has never targeted it as such. That has been the work of groups such as the Taliban and Hezbi-i-Islami/Hekmatyar, which have vowed publicly to derail the process and have been responsible for the brunt of the attacks directed against voter registration.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“The average number of police will be approximately six per site, and therefore additional security personnel will have to be recruited locally, in addition to trained police. The security of areas around the polling sites will be provided by the military: personnel from the Afghan National Army, from ISAF and from the coalition. The coalition now has approximately 18,000 troops in Afghanistan; ISAF has 7,300, which will rise to approximately 8,300 when the Spanish and Italian battalions are in theatre. They should be operational by the end of September. Cooperation between security actors and the electoral authority has been increasingly smooth as voter registration has progressed, and that legacy will be a very significant asset in dealing with the much more difficult challenge of providing security for the election.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Ballot boxes and other non-sensitive materials are arriving in the country and are in the process of distribution to the 34 provincial centres. Ballot papers will arrive in Kabul on 15 September and will similarly be shipped to provincial centres during the second half of September. Of course, security is a major consideration. The overall security plan for the pre-polling phase, for election day and for post-election processes has been finalized. The concept is essentially identical to that developed during registration: polling-site security will be the responsibility primarily of the Ministry of Interior, who by polling day will have 20,000 police trained in the training centres supported by the United States and Germany.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Credit also goes to the Afghan security forces, to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and to the coalition, which - along with United Nations personnel - have played an essential role in this unprecedented endeavour. Preparations for the election are now under way. The Joint Electoral Management Body is finalizing regulations applicable to the electoral campaign, which will start on 7 September. These cover campaign financing, electoral activities and public order, access to the media and the misuse of government resources for political purposes. Logistical preparations for the election are also under way: approximately 5,000 polling centres have been identified, in which 25,000 polling sites will be located. The recruitment of the 120,000 Afghan staff involved in the election has begun.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Some concerns have been expressed - most recently by several presidential candidates - about the fairness of registration. Among the allegations were charges that political considerations had shaped the choice of registration sites or the date of closing. Although there were obviously shortcomings to this process, we are fully satisfied that political bias was not one of them. Multiple registration, on the other hand, has probably been a factor, but it is very difficult to measure its scale, and, in any case, it will have no impact on polling. At the conclusion of this nine-month registration campaign, it is fitting to pay tribute to the 12 electoral workers who were killed and the more than 30 who were wounded in attacks by extremists and to the 14,000 Afghan staff who made this success possible.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Although many of the cases of imbalance that existed a month ago between provinces have been corrected, it has proved very difficult to redress the situation in the areas of the south most affected by insecurity. In those areas, general insecurity, threats and attacks by extremist elements against electoral personnel and against the people themselves have caused registration sites to open late or for shorter periods of time. Most affected has been the province of Zabul, where registration barely exceeds 50 per cent of the target. In addition, although even in very conservative areas of the country the registration of women has reached the national average of some 40 per cent, we believe that insecurity has contributed to the very low registration of women in the south - approximately 19 per cent.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“Overall, that is a good result: this comprehensive nationwide exercise now enables the electoral authorities and the security forces to make appropriate preparations for the 9 October election. It will make it possible for the elected leadership to claim representation of the Afghan nation as a whole. It has also served as a tool for an unprecedented level of popular mobilization around the political process, much higher than the two prior exercises held earlier: namely, the Emergency Loya Jirga and the Constitutional Loya J irga. Elections held in the wake of a prolonged conflict are meant to create political legitimacy for the post-war order. The presidential election in Afghanistan now has the potential to do just that. The picture is not entirely satisfactory, however.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“President, I will therefore refrain from reiterating what is already contained in it and focus on providing the Council with an update on the main issues on the Bonn agenda. Throughout most of the country, voter registration closed on 15 August. In some districts of the south and the south-east, where registration started late owing to insecurity, registration was extended for another five days and came to an end on 20 August. Although final figures will take some time to compile, the broad picture is already available: 10.5 million people registered, more than 41 per cent of them women. Some 230,000 nomads were registered by dedicated registration teams.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“As the first speaker at today's meeting, I should like to express to you, Mr. President, our condolences for the tragic air accident that occurred yesterday and to request that you convey our expressions of support and solidarity to the families of the victims. (spoke in English) Thank you, Mr. President, for this new opportunity to appear before the Council and also for having agreed to postpone this presentation from last week until today in order to accommodate the work of the Mission. Members of the Council have already seen the quarterly report of the Secretary-General (S/2004/634), which covers the period from mid-March until the end of July. With your permission, Mr.”
2004-08-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5025 (2004) · source
“The persistent woes of Afghanistan - terrorism, factionalism and criminal networks - are as much at work today as they were two years ago and their ability to subvert State-building and a genuine political process is hardly diminished. Whether it is counter-terrorism, electoral security, counter-narcotics or control of factional fighting, at this critical juncture for the Afghan peace process international security assistance continues to make the difference between success and failure.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“Let me conclude, as I started, with a mention of the security issue and take advantage of this opportunity - perhaps the last - to call upon the States members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to respond to the appeal of their Secretary General and allow that organization to meet the commitments it has given to the people of Afghanistan. Security in general, and that of the electoral process in particular, is ultimately an Afghan responsibility, but it is a responsibility that Afghans currently cannot shoulder without international assistance. A widespread, robust international military presence in support of domestic security forces remains absolutely critical.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“They are deeply a prerequisite for the holding of an election that will further peace, stability and national reconciliation in Afghanistan. Much of the responsibility for providing this environment will certainly rest with the Afghans themselves. In particular, those Afghan leaders who aspire to the authority that stems from a national election must know that the anticipated legitimacy of its outcome is predicated upon the legitimacy of the process itself. But the burden also rests on the international community.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“Those - not a small number - who were disappointed after June 2002 by the composition of the Transitional Government - deemed too unrepresentative of the nation as a whole - have now transferred their hopes to the national elections. But this momentum and these expectations also place a considerable burden on the electoral process and the environment in which it will take place. As I said before, a process that is perceived to be biased and distorted could deeply undermine hopes, which were enhanced by the adoption of the new Constitution, that differences among Afghans can be settled through peaceful political means. Let us not make any mistake in that regard: the requirements of freedom and fairness are not a foreign standard.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“This election can be an invaluable means to a critical end, namely, that of broadening the legitimacy of the new State and strengthening its authority to address the persisting problems of violent extremism, factionalism, drugs and what is still a sombre picture in terms of human rights. Surprisingly, perhaps, in a country without a strong electoral tradition, voter registration has mobilized the population at large, which is insistently demanding participation in the electoral process. This certainly should allay the concerns of those who may fear that these elections have no popular support. There is momentum and there are expectations.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“So far, about 3,000 functioning or repairable weapons systems have been surveyed. Heavy weapons cantonment is now about to start in Gardez and in Kandahar and will take around a month to complete in each location. I should also stress that in Kabul, where heavy weapons cantonment started last November, ISAF hopes that full cantonment will be achieved in one week to 10 days. In conclusion, I would like to stress that there is no doubt about the positive impact that the holding of genuine national elections can have on the consolidation of peace in Afghanistan.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“Some of these concerns can be entertained and have been addressed through adjustments that have been made in the past few days to the DDR plan. As a result, we expect more cooperation with the plan from a variety of senior commanders from now on. With regard to political integration, discussions have been taking place on and off for many months. We hope that an understanding can now materialize and, just as importantly, that this understanding between the Government and senior commanders will advance the main priorities on Afghanistan's national agenda: disarmament, the strengthening of national institutions, the rule of law, the observance of human rights and the all-important fight against drugs. As to heavy weapons cantonment - an important component of the DDR process - the country-wide survey is now complete.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“As members are aware, following the completion of the pilot projects from December 2003 to February 2004, the Government and the international community have reached an agreement on the main phase of DDR, which is to include, by June, 40 per cent of the militia forces and, by July, the full cantonment of heavy weapons under a reliable safekeeping arrangement. The implementation of this agreement, however, has encountered very serious delays. Senior commanders have been reluctant to cooperate with the process on a variety of grounds. They have cited a lack of balance in DDR between rival armed formations; Taliban operations in the South; and a lack of confidence in the prospects for reintegration, including political integration.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“Even if the central Government had the will to conduct compulsory demobilization, it does not have the means to match. The process of disarmament is therefore, unavoidably, a voluntary process. It requires a combination of factors that include a measure of overall confidence in the institutions of the State, in particular the Ministry of Defence; the confidence of soldiers and commanders in the sustainability of reintegration; and the confidence of factional leaders in their security and their integration in the political future of the country.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“Indeed, Afghans, irrespective of geographical origin and ethnic affiliation, have reaffirmed on countless occasions since the Emergency Loya Jirga that a genuine exercise in electoral choice could take place only if the grip of local militias on the political process was loosened. The principal goal of the 2004 elections - strengthening the legitimacy and authority of the next Afghan Government - would no doubt be compromised if public perception should prevail that the election was distorted by military intimidation and interference. This is why UNAMA has been insisting that DDR, while negotiable, is not optional, but both a central and urgent task of the Transitional Government. Naturally, it is also a very complex and sensitive task. Coercive disarmament is not an option in Afghanistan.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“Among the benchmarks for the holding of free and fair elections, one stands out in the minds of an overwhelming majority of Afghans: disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. The importance of DDR goes, of course, beyond the elections themselves. It is a critical component of a larger process aimed at addressing one of the most dangerous legacies of the lengthy war in Afghanistan, namely, the continued existence of multiple armies that jeopardize the building of a viable Afghan State and constitute a permanent threat to civil peace. But the significance of DDR for the shorter-term electoral process cannot be overestimated.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“As I mentioned earlier, the Political Party Law has been adopted, and political parties are being registered, albeit slowly. A new Media Law has been passed which has some shortcomings but is overall considered to be a major improvement over the Press Law adopted in 1992. Following the adoption of the Electoral Law, the electoral authorities are now in the process of establishing a media monitoring commission, which will have to start operating 60 days before the elections. A code of conduct has now been approved by the electoral authorities and is open for signature to political parties. Finally, the organization of a campaign of verification of political rights is now being discussed between the Afghan Human Rights Commission and UNAMA and we hope that it will start in the next couple of weeks.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“President, that in August of last year, Ambassador Brahimi circulated to the Council a draft work plan that contained a series of security and political benchmarks that the country had to meet in order to be able to hold free and fair elections, leading, as the Bonn Agreement requires, to a fully representative Government. Those political measures included the adoption of a Political Party Law; the registration of political parties; the revision of the existing Press Law to enhance the protection of journalists; the creation of a Media Monitoring Commission; a Code of Conduct for political parties; and the issuance by the central Government of clear instructions to officials, both military and civilian, regarding their behaviour during the electoral campaign. Those measures are at various stages of implementation today.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“This is in part because the Political Party Law sought, understandably, to limit the right to operate legally to those groups that were not related to military organizations. But that criterion has proved very difficult to implement - and let us remember, after all, that the main partners in the coalition Government are, or have been, in fact, heads of political or military organizations themselves. As of today, 16 parties have been registered, out of the 48 that have applied. We continue to encourage donors to provide some capacity to those registered parties - on an equal basis - in order to enable them to participate meaningfully in the upcoming elections. The status of political parties takes us directly to the all-important issue of the political environment in which the upcoming elections are to take place. You may remember, Mr.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“In Berlin, we had presented the international community with a bill for full registration and voting in Iran and Pakistan amounting to $37.6 million. Some donors were concerned about the high price, in particular if it covered only presidential elections - which is the choice of the Cabinet. Together with the Afghan Electoral Commission, we have been working on less expensive options, but they raise some issues of credibility, particularly where the identification of eligible voters is difficult. Again, we hope that a solution that meets electoral standards and provides franchise for the overwhelming majority of refugees will soon be found. A few words now about political parties, obviously key actors in the electoral process. The registration of political parties has been slow and difficult.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“This, it turns out, was a wise decision, since the settlement of disputes concerning district boundaries - obviously, a precondition for local elections - has not yet been completed and is likely to take quite some time. I referred briefly to the issue of out-of-country registration and voting. It is hoped that a final decision will be made soon by the electoral authorities, in consultation with the central Government. Certainly, the participation of refugees in the upcoming elections is important, but one has to understand that the challenges are considerable. Indeed, with the goal of enabling more than 2 million refugees to vote, this is the largest out-of-country voting operation ever undertaken in a post-conflict context.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“As to the representation of women, the Electoral Law ensures compliance with the constitutional requirement that, on average, two women per province be elected to the Lower House by providing that the best- performing women will automatically get the seats that the provincial quota requires. A few words now about local elections and also about refugee participation in the elections. In February of this year, it was agreed that the elections to be held in September would include only the presidential election and elections to the Lower House. Local elections, it was agreed, would take place in a staggered way over a period of six months, and the full Upper House would be constituted soon after.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“The latter view has prevailed, and the current law places political party representatives and independent candidates on the same footing. The system chosen - the Single Non- Transferable Vote - has the merit of being simple to explain and fairly simple to operate, but it also tends to spread the vote widely among candidates, leading, therefore, to a potentially very fragmented representation in Parliament. In order to try to contain those disadvantages, some prerequisites for the nomination of candidates have been included in the Law which are meant to mitigate the problem of fragmentation.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“Because the creation of single-member constituencies for all 240 seats in the future Lower House was not an option, at least for the Transitional Government, the point of departure for the recently adopted electoral system is the establishment of multi-member constituencies based on the boundaries of the current provinces. Some have argued that, in order to promote multi-party democracy, it was advisable to encourage existing political parties to serve as intermediaries between the voters and their representatives in Parliament through the creation of party lists. Others feel very strongly that the electoral system should not rely on political parties - which still have a largely negative image in public opinion - and should, on the contrary, promote a direct relationship between voters and their representatives in Parliament.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“To date, the figures are as follows: of the $107.8 million needed to cover presidential and parliamentary elections as well as out-of-country registration and voting, as well as security, only $66.1 million were pledged at the Berlin conference in April, and only $27.7 million have been secured so far. This creates a particularly serious problem for refugee voting, which I will come back to later. Following lengthy debates within the Cabinet and the Joint Electoral Management Body, the Electoral Law has now been finalized. The main point under discussion has been the role of political parties during the transitional election.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source
“Based on the trends identified in the country as a whole, census experts are still confident that they can produce fairly reliable figures for those four provinces, but, again, given the sensitivity involved in all matters related to representation, that lack of survey is also bound to compound the suspicion already created by low registration figures. A third challenge is, of course, funding. The voter registration process itself is almost fully funded, with a shortfall of just $2.6 million, but the election itself is only partially funded, to a very limited extent.”
2004-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4979 (2004) · source