Taliban delay Afghan election results by destroying cell towers

There are several reasons Afghan officials are struggling to determine how people voted in the presidential election last week — possible fraud, misplaced biometric data and the country’s vast geography. But there is one factor that has complicated the effort more than any other: the Taliban’s tactic of destroying cellphone towers.

Afghanistan’s growing cellular network has long been considered a benchmark for the country’s modernization and growth. But the destruction of the towers prevented voting officials from communicating with election workers in the country, while instigating fear and intimidation in the affected areas.

The Taliban have sought support in the rural hamlets and towns that harbor militants, even as they fight the government in Kabul. The cellphone tower strategy augments the group’s more conventional, and deadly, forms of insurgency. There were scores of attacks on election targets Saturday that killed police officers and wounded civilians.

While officials praised Afghan security forces for their performance in defending against widespread smaller attacks, the Taliban still managed to create a cloud over the elections. Four days after the vote, officials were still struggling to determine how many people had turned out, although initial figures from the election commission put the number around 2.5 million, a historic low.

As recently as last month, the elections were not even certain to happen, with all the attention focused on negotiations between the Taliban and the United States that were nearing a deal for a US withdrawal. If the two sides had finalized an agreement, the election was likely to have been postponed. But President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the talks.

On Wednesday, Zalmay Khalizad, the US special envoy who had been conducting those talks, arrived for meetings with officials in Pakistan, where Taliban insurgents have sanctuaries. His visit overlapped with Taliban negotiators, based in Qatar, who also were visiting Pakistan. But it remained unclear whether Khalilzad would meet them.

The election results are not expected for weeks, and a runoff is likely, although the uncertainty has not prevented each campaign of the two main contenders, President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, from claiming its candidate is ahead.

In the northeastern province of Takhar, Taliban commanders warned cellphone companies that if they did not deactivate their towers, the militant group would destroy them.

“We have the Taliban letter with us: The order was given by Mawlawi Haibatullah, the Taliban leader,” said Ghafoor Talash, head of the telecommunications and information technology department in Takhar. “The reason for the order was to violate the election.”

After Talash contacted his counterparts in Kabul, he was instructed to make sure the towers stayed on at least for Election Day, and the Taliban followed through on their threat. Several towers were destroyed, he said, along with two other main towers in Baghlan and Kunduz provinces. Some towers, Talash said, cost $200,000 apiece, while some other, larger sites can cost as much as $1 million.

Often, as was the case Saturday, Afghanistan’s telecom companies are caught in the middle: threats from the Taliban to shut off their towers, or have their license revoked by the government if they adhere to the militants’ demands.

On Tuesday, after days of fighting — along with a US airstrike that accidentally struck a pro-government militia outpost, killing seven people — deactivated towers were turned back on, and repair teams set out to fix the burned infrastructure, Talash said.

There are more than 6,000 cell towers spread across the country, according to Afghan government statistics, providing coverage to roughly 90% of the population, and problems were reported beyond Takhar.

Service was disabled or limited in several other provinces, and service was intermittent even in Kandahar city, one of the country’s largest urban centers, because of Taliban threats Saturday. In Farah, a southwestern province heavily contested by the Taliban, some cell towers remain offline.

“The dysfunctional communication network created lots of problems, especially during polling day,” said Muhibullah Muhib, a police spokesman in Farah Province. “You are not aware of the situation, and you cannot be aware of incidents and the turnout.”

The election took place after several fraud scandals cast doubt on the integrity of the election, even after officials said votes that had been verified through a biometric system would be counted. Many voters complained that they could not find their names at the polling stations where they had signed up to vote.

As officials tried to restore the cellphone network, the country was also taking stock of the violence that shook the country Saturday. Taliban fighters killed more than 30 people in Takhar, including women and children, over the weekend, according to Ahmad Monir Azizi, acting director of Takhar Provincial Hospital, in what appeared to have been a concerted push to overrun another provincial center.

The Interior Ministry said there had been more than 60 attacks on election targets Saturday, leaving three police officers dead and 37 civilians and two Afghan army soldiers wounded.

Privately, officials acknowledged that the number of attacks was much higher, possibly more than 200. A New York Times tally put the number of dead at roughly 40 and the wounded at more than 170.

© 2019 The New York Times Company