For four days in early December over 6200 elders and notables from across Nawa District in Helmand made their way to register for the upcoming District Community Council (DCC) election.
These DCC’s only occur in Helmand. It is the only province across Afghanistan where its citizens have the option to vote for a district representative body through a large open election process and hold these elected officials to account.
The Nawa election is taking place because the current elected District Community Councils three-year term is coming to an end.
The first election took place in 2009 and had an electorate of 398, however, election fever seems to have gripped the population. There has been campaigning by both the existing members of the DCC and opposition from new ‘upstarts’ who are challenging the existing members based on their record over the last three years.
This unprecedented turnout means that of the seven districts in Helmand that have elected DCCs, Nawa will have the largest electorate by far.
Marjah in 2011 had an election of 1500 voters, Sangin in March 2012 had almost 3000, and Nahr-e-Saraj in May 2012 had almost 3500. These three DCC elections in traditionally challenging areas of Helmand had no significant security incidents, and were entirely Afghan run without any support from the International Community.
The Election Day is due to take place early in the New Year.
It will be the single biggest official event ever to take place in Nawa. It will be an entirely de-militarised event with no ANA or ISAF personnel in the Shura will be televised and will be shown on Kabul and Lashkar Gah news.
The freedom of movement, the willingness of the population to engage, and the total control and administration of this process by the Afghan authorities is just one illustration of the remarkable progress that is taking place across Helmand.