Afghan election candidates live in fear: Amnesty

Afghans are to go to polls on Saturday to vote for 249 lawmakers.

Candidates in Afghanistan’s parliamentary poll are living in fear of insurgent attacks,with women at particular risk in the conservative Islamic country,a leading rights watchdog said Thursday.

Afghans are to go to polls on Saturday to vote for 249 lawmakers in the country’s second such election since the Taliban were overthrown in late 2001.

More than 2,500 candidates are standing amid a Taliban campaign of violence and intimidation that has already seen three candidates and dozens of supporters killed in recent months.

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The Taliban told AFP that polling centres would come under attack on Saturday,with election workers and security forces the primary targets.

Amnesty International said candidates,campaigners and voters had reported “increasing attacks and threats from the Taliban and other insurgent groups,” ahead of voting day.

“Women candidates are at particular risk and some have told Amnesty International that local security forces refuse to offer them protection and even ridicule them when they do report threats or violence against them.”

The London-based group said it has “urged the Afghan government to ensure equal access to police protection for all candidates based on an objective security assessment,not on gender or political affiliation”.

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Other groups,including New York-based Human Rights Watch have also pointed out the dangers faced by candidates,supporters and voters,with particular emphasis on threats against women.

Of the seats up for grabs in the lower house,or Wolesi Jirga,on Saturday 68 are reserved for women.

Amnesty quoted a woman candidate as receiving a “night letter” — a warning delivered under a gate or nailed to a door in the dead of night by the Taliban.