Caption title.

“September 2009.”

Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre--at head of title.

Includes bibliographical references.

Summary: “A series of factors indicate that the August 20 Afghan elections might better have been postponed. The egregious flaws in the electoral process could aggravate the political situation and dash whatever hope there was for stabilizing the society and improving the lives of the people. It may mark the point of no return for recuperating the tarnished credibility of the central government. For many Afghans the election will end up displaying democracy as a sham and reducing the people’s trust in the Western-backed political process even more. The election indeed highlighted that Afghan misgovernment is still the Taliban’s most devoted ally and effective recruitment tool.”--(Summary).