Caught this a few days ago at Intel Dump:
The elections were a huge financial and logistical challenge which Afghanistan could not have done by itself. The total cost was upwards of $149 million dollars, and it required 1,247 donkeys, 300 horses, 24 camels, 1,200 trucks, 9 helicopters, and 39 transport planes to get ballots to the 26,250 polling stations around the country. There were also almost 3,000 external election monitors to insure fairness. All of this was provided or paid for by the US and international community.
According to the Asian Development Bank ***, Afghanistan’s GDP (excluding opium production) for 2004 was estimated at $5.4 billion. The election cost represents about 2.76% of the country’s GPD, and 24% of the government’s estimated $609 million operating budget (2004 estimate). Scheduled at every five years, parliamentary elections will be a recurring expense. On top of this, Afghanistan is still a pauper nation, and its government depends on handouts from the international community in order to function. Free elections in Afghanistan are dependent on the continued generosity of the outside world.
So it costs them about 2.5 to 3.0% of their GDP everytime they have an nationwide election. (Just for comparison, 3% of the US GDP is about $360 billion.) Now, granted, they don't have to have one of these every year (but, one assumes, at least every three). But still, that's a great deal of money to spend just to count the votes.
How soon will someone propose (or implement) a plan where they start pinching pennies by not trying so hard to reach all the remote areas? Which is another way of saying, How long until Afghanistan isn't democratic anymore?
Posted by baltar at October 7, 2005 05:47 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs