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Donkeys bring ballot boxes to Afghan mountains
 
 
 
 
 
 
 AFP - Tuesday, August 18
BABA ALI, Afghanistan (AFP) - - Afghan officials dispatched donkey trains laden with ballot boxes and voting papers into the mountains Monday, taking material for landmark elections to the most remote communities.
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From Baba Ali village, where the main road through one of the legendary Panjshir valleys peters out by a gushing river and soaring mountains, 12 donkeys began a six-hour trek, an AFP reporter said.
The donkeys were loaded with plastic chairs, desks, dozens of white plastic ballot boxes, thousands of ballot papers for Thursday's presidential and provincial council elections for concurrent provincial elections.
Most of the donkeys were led by children. Asked what they were carrying on their pack animals, one of the boys, who wore plastic shoes and said he was 12 years old, smiled and said only: "For election."
Asked what election, he said: "For king."
"Today we're delivering sensitive and non-sensitive election material to our polling stations. As you can see it is a difficult job," electoral worker Abdul Hashir told AFP in Baba Ali.
Some "polling stations are located in areas where we cannot go by car. We have lots of problems with transportation in this area and that's why, as you see, we're using donkeys to deliver the material," he added.
Officials have said more than 3,000 donkeys will be drafted in to help deliver millions of ballot papers to remote regions of the largely rural country where many communities are inaccessible by road.
Helicopters will also be used to deliver ballot papers, tonnes of stationery and other items for the August 20 polls, authorities say.
The election materials are being delivered to equip between 6,200 and nearly 7,000 polling stations -- a number officials say will only be finalised after security risks are assessed.
Officials have said there are between seven and nine districts where voting would not take place because of the presence of insurgents.
The poll is the first organised by Afghans in a largely rural country of steep mountains and vast deserts after previous post-Taliban elections were run by the United Nations.
Not long after setting out, the donkey trains hit terrain that looked almost impossible to traverse -- tracks strewn with huge rocks from mountain landslides and, in other places, knee-deep water.
The animals were headed to different villages across the valley, branching off as they reached forks on the track that led to their destinations.
People in Baba Ali, the last village accessible by road in one of the Panjshir's many valleys, said they were happy to participate in the electoral process.
Ali Ahmad, a 55-year-old teacher from the village of Qolandar, three hours walk from Baba Ali, said he would vote "in the interest of country and our people".
"We are living in extreme hardship, we have no roads as you can see, we take the election materials on donkeys, we don't have schools, our people are jobless, we have nothing, but we vote for a better future, for our people and for our country," he said.
Pur Dil, a 35-year-old teacher from Dost Ali village, said: "We have lots of problems getting into our village, we have to walk for two hours (from Baba Ali), we have to use animals or walk carrying food.
"But people are still happy with what we have and the general feeling is people are really looking forward to voting."
Former soldier Abdul Khaliq, who said he was in his thirties and was missing half a hand lost in battle against the Taliban, was more interested in politics than the process.
Incumbent and frontrunner Hamid Karzai would not be getting his vote, he said.
"What have they done for us?" he said of the government. "We have nothing and our people were disarmed. Thirty years of suffering and people are still suffering. We don't have roads, they have done nothing for us."
 
 
 
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