Voices on Afghanistan: The election of my generation

Afghanistan's presidential election through the eyes of one young Afhgna - Omaid Sharifi, 29, a civil society activist in Kabul.

Newly-sworn in Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, right, administers the oath to Abdullah Abdullah, left, as Afghanistan's new chief executive during the inauguration of the country's new president at the Presidential Palace in Kabul on September 29, 2014. Shah Marai/AFP PhotoShow less

Young Afghans have watched the result of Afghanistan’s presidential election closely, says Omaid Sharifi, 29, a civil society activist in Kabul. Even after months of waiting for a new president, there will be no letting up on the activists’ anti-corruption drive. Follow Mr Sharifi on Twitter: @omaidsharifi

I followed the presidential election and subsequent negotiations over power sharing very closely. Everyone working in civil society was doing that.

This was the election of my generation.

The campaign events; media outreach; so much of the election was implemented by the youth. They worked 20-hour days to make sure that things went well. We are a very young country. About 60 per cent of our population is under-25. We have a lot of fresh young voters. The entire process was very interesting to them.

Was it a successful election? Not really. This is not what the Afghan people hope for.

It took us eight months to finalise the election. There were a lot of allegations of fraud. It took months of negotiations between the candidates and with the international community to reach an agreement on a national unity government. There was a tremendous impact on the Afghan economy.

But we are happy to have a civilian government and we are hopeful. We are happy that the transfer of power is happening. This is the first time we are transferring power from one elected government to another.

The next step is the implementation of the agreement between the two leaders. Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah are clever people. These two people both have the skills to work together and deliver on their campaign promises. When it comes to anti-corruption campaigning, we plan to triple our efforts. There were so many campaign promises made from both candidates; they both said they were focused on fighting corruption.

As civil society activists, our work is focused on finding unconventional ways to fight corruption at a local level and at a policy level.

For instance, we had a campaign where we painted two eyes on government institutions in Kabul with the words “I see you” in yellow, which is known locally as the colour of hate. The point was that the politicians cannot hide from the people or from God.

We are also creating two eyes from white stones on a mountainside outside Kabul. The eyes will look over all of Kabul and be seen by citizens and government officials. This currently is a project involving 200 young artists who will help us carry the stones and design the eyes on the mountain.

During the election, we also had a campaign in social media called “Have you paid your taxes?” In the elections this past year, most of the candidates were preaching about reforms and fighting corruption. So we started a campaign on Facebook in all our national languages. The targets were journalists who covered the elections. We wanted to pitch basic questions that they could ask the candidates, such as “have you paid your taxes?”

These sorts of things don’t cost much. We are not spending millions of dollars of aid money or taxpayers’ money. But they are very effective tools to raise awareness. We’ve also successfully worked to get an access to information law passed in both houses of parliament. It is now going to the president.

This is a law that exists in hundred of countries around the world. For instance, there is a local project happening in a village and citizens want to know what is going on. This law allows the citizens to see everything that is happening and what is being spent, where. It’s a citizen monitor of government activities.

With this kind of active civil society, I’m positive that we can defeat corruption. Afghan civil society members are committed to liaising with new administration and to fighting for this noble cause.