Afghanistan elections April 2014: will they be fair?

Presidential  elections are due to take place in Afghanistan on April 5th

Good starting points for background to the elections are
IFES guide
Guardian has a basic guide and news coverage of events
Aljazeera recently published an article on myths about the elections.
The BBC website has a guide to why the election matters in 60 seconds as well as general news
Tolo news - has news from within Afghanistan.
Independent  Election Commission of Afghanistan has information on the electoral system, previous elections

Election observers.
use these sites to get analysis of the state of democracy and conduct of the elections.
EU observers
United Nations Assistance mission.


Analysis
Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) is an independent non-profit policy research includes useful postings and analysis of eventsDemocracy International has polls of voters and analysis of knowledge
IKNOW - covers women in the elections.
CRS congressional research services briefing Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance November 22, 2013
Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has reports on women in democracy
United States Institute of Peace briefing.
Council on Foreign relations.
Brookings Institution.
Rand - analysis of security



Human Rights.
Controversy surrounding polls issued has been highlighted by Reuters.
Human Rights Watch has reported concerns
Amnesty International has published a document which sets out what should be done.
International Media support has documented pressures on the media.

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Afghanistan human rights, liberty and elections

According to Foreign Policy magazine the west should be worried about fraud in the forthcoming Afghan elections.
But what do others think.
Here are some organisations which monitor human rights and security in the region.
The Afghanistan Research and Evaluation unit is an independent body based in Kabul. Its website has papers on economic, social and political development. For instance see this recent alternative voices paper on the elections in 2010
The Afghanistan Analysts Network is an independent policy institute. Its website includes timely blogs and full text publications.
Also based in Afghanistan is the Independent Human Rights Commission
Amnesty International has general reports on Afghanistan.
Human Rights Watch
International Crisis Group.
Finally Human Security Gateway aggregates reports on security from many leading research and human rights bodies worldwide so is a good starting point for locating full text papers and reports.

Afghanistan - elections coming soon

Parliamentary elections are due to take place in Afghanistan on the 18th September. As I will be way for a couple of weeks I thought i would offer some starting points on researching them.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has some background information on the electoral system.
Also from the United Nations UNDP Elect site has summaries of news and background information. It includes a particularly good resources section where you will find full text reports and papers (many covering previous elections from 2004 onwards) published by the UN and other major aid and charitable organisations.
The Independent Election Commission is overseeing the events. Its website has a list of candidates, parties and links to electoral laws. Take a look at the press releases section for the latest news.
A number of bodies will be monitoring the elections. Their websites will include analysis of the conduct of the elections and state of democracy in the region.
FEFA - is the fair and Free election Foundation of Afghanistan. Its blog has updates on the situation.
The OSCE will also be deploying a mission.
NDI is also producing an Afghanistan election digest which is covering the work of its own observation mission.

Finally some good news sites.
Afghanistan Votes good news coverage and interviews as well as voter information.
Silobreaker aggregates recent blog, twitter and internet piostings covering the elections. Look for the mappings of news stories on the site.
Similarly Global voices has up to date bloggers discussion.