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Pre-election violence in Afghanistan

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Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Rachel Reid of Human Rights Watch in Kabul about the spike in violence in the days before Thursday elections in Afghanistan.

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Afghans go to the polls in two days to elect a president but violence continues to mar the run-up to the vote. Today a suicide bomber killed 15 people in the capital Kabul including UN staff and a NATO soldier. Another explosion rocked the presidential compound. US Senator John McCain is in Kabul now. He spoke at a news conference today. He praised Washington’s efforts to encourage open and fair elections countering allegations of US interference.

JOHN MCCAIN: It seems to me the only organization in Afghanistan that wants to have an election disrupted and unfair is the Taliban. So I think if you look at the record there has not only not been United States interference but I think there’s been United States encouragement and material support to make sure as many people in Afghanistan are able to vote.

MULLINS: That was Senator John McCain in Kabul, Afghanistan. But there are concerns that the violence will keep people home on elect ion day. Rachel Reid is with the group Human Rights Watch in Kabul.

RACHEL REID: What we’re seeing in the last few days… We’ve seen several rocket attacks. We saw a big attack obviously, close to the US embassy, on Saturday. We are seeing a significant spike in insurgent attacks in these last few days in Kabul. So really it’s taking a turn to the worst and as this goes on voters will potentially be scared off from going to the polls.

MULLINS: What point do you believe that voters really will be turned off given the fact that they have had to deal with violence or the threats of violence for so long now? I mean what evidence do you look for to be able to predict that the election may not be free and fair?

REID: Well voter registration was a big indication. It took place in the spring of this year. And actually it was better than I think many people thought. Again given the deterioration that we’ve seen in this situation here the last few years, there was actually a pretty healthy registration and there were something like 5 million new voters added to the list so as that as an indicator was the [INAUDIBLE] one. And we’ve seen high levels of people putting their names forward as candidates, even women, even for an increase in women putting their names for the provincial council elections which are taking place at the same time as the presidential elections. So these were healthy signs and I think it shows just how much Afghans do really want democracy to take route and these elections to take place.

MULLINS: That was Rachel Reid with Human Rights Watch in Kabul, Afghanistan.

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