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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Canadian runs NATO hub monitoring Afghan vote

By: Matthew Fisher

Posted: 08/20/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Lt.-Col. Rob Roy MacKenzie (CANWEST NEWS SERVICE ARCHIVES)

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An Afghan policeman guards the gate of a Kandahar polling station. (MUSADEQ SADEQ / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan -- If the Taliban make good on their boast to destroy today's presidential elections in Kandahar, the first Canadian likely to know will be a cop from Vancouver.

Lt.-Col. Rob Roy MacKenzie, who normally works as a constable for Vancouver's SWAT team, runs NATO's Operations Co-ordination Centre -- Provincial Kandahar.

Connected by radio to all the Afghan and coalition security grids and by intranet to several others, the OCCP is the collection point and clearing house for all security information in Kandahar. As the central information hub it is also the place where leading officials from Kandahar, the Independent Electoral Commission, the UN, Canada and the U.S. will meet to consider how to respond to any Taliban provocations.

"I envisage a swift flow of information," said MacKenzie, who is an army reservist and former commander of the Vancouver-based Seaforth Highlanders.

About 17 million Afghans are eligible to vote for 41 candidates for the presidency and about 3,000 candidates for about 400 provincial council seats. But more than half the voters may not show up at the polls today.

Among the reasons are the high potential for terrorist attacks, widespread disappointment in the political system, which is regarded as terribly corrupt, allegations of vote-buying and bribery as well as double voting and suspicions that ballot boxes will be tampered with by supporters of the wily incumbent, Hamid Karzai, who curiously has the declared backing of at least a dozen of the other presidential candidates.

Karzai is reckoned to still have a strong lead, but perhaps not enough to get the 50-per-cent-plus-one vote required to win a second term without a run-off. His chief rival is thought to be his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah.

Because of security questions and the country's challenging geography, preliminary results are not expected for at least 48 hours and it could take weeks for all the votes to be tabulated. If a second ballot, most likely between Karzai and Abdullah, is required, a run-off election would be held in October.

The security outlook in Kandahar was such that Afghan election officials called the election off altogether in two of the 17 districts -- Ghworak and Mianeshin -- because the Taliban were so dominant that it had been impossible for voters to be registered.

To try to minimize Taliban attacks on election day, Canada's battle group has conducted several weeks of "shaping" operations designed to seize bomb-making materials and keep insurgents on a defensive footing.

Offensive operations by all NATO forces across Afghanistan are to be suspended today so troops can concentrate on protecting the elections.

"There will be a lot more security than usual because there will be concentrations of people around polling stations," MackKenzie said.

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 20, 2009 A9

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