WHY TO VOTE? ELECTORAL PARTICIPATION IN GENERAL ELECTION (A CASE STUDY OF AFGHANISTAN 2010 AND 2018 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION)

Abstract

Democracy in Afghanistan like many other developing countries has gone through several ups and downs. The process of democracy initiated by king Amanullah khan in 1919 when he articulated the first constitution of Afghanistan. However, this process has stopped many times in the 20th century. But after the American invasion of Afghanistan this process became a broader issue in Afghanistan. The Bonn conference mad a political road map for the future of the country. The constitution was articulated in 2004 which created a way for electing people representation to the parliament. These three rounds of parliamentary election particularly election for the lower house of the parliament faced several issue which questioned its representation in Afghanistan. Besides, the 20 years old democracy came to an end in 2021 unpredictably and it was claiming that people in Afghanistan haven’t wanted to have a democratic government. It was also thought that the political and social arena of Afghanistan does not suit this kind of government. Beside these ideas the people of Afghanistan have participated in three round parliamentary elections and four times they came together to elect their president. In view of theses equations tow many question arise. For instance, if people don’t want to have a democratic government so why they are participating in these kind of democratic process. So this qualitative research focused to determine the main reason that motivated people to participate in general elections in a society that have faced too many challenges in implementing democracy in the last twenty years.(Andrea,2009). Through semi-structured interview with politicians, Journalists, academician and voter in this we understand various factor which resulted to lead people come to the polling centers and use their votes. According to the rational choice theory used in this research we find that political awareness, people self-interest, believing in democracy as great system of government, the power of each vote, the hate that people had from the last few years war in Afghanistan, unregulated in changing governmental system, dictatorship and so many other were the main motivation for casting votes in Walasi Jirga election in Afghanistan. By examining the two round (2010 and 2018) parliamentary election in Afghanistan we understand that the process of democratizing Afghanistan is facing several ups and downs. Believing in voting has always effected the turn out in electoral participation. Comparison between the last two round elections shows that participation in general election is getting down in Afghanistan. This article is mainly focusing to find out the main motivation behind participation in parliamentary elections.