Val först, stabilitet sen

Sammanfattning: Rife with violence, widespread fraud and finally ending up with the incumbent president Hamid Karzai retaining possession of the presidency through default following the resignation of lead contender Abdullah Abdullah, the afghan presidential election of 2009 was a complete disaster. Based on this starting point the purpose of this thesis is to examine the appropriateness of going through with the election in Afghanistan at that point in time. I go about this through examining the conditions and circumstances that applied to the afghan society in the time leading up to the elections. Using a theoretical framework detailing the conflict-generating mechanisms of elections in societies torn by war and violence I in turn examine the actors, institutions and stakes of the election. I finally arrive at the conclusion that considering the conditions of the time the agents organizing the election should probably consider themselves lucky that the country didn’t plunge deeper into conflict or even falling victim to a new civil war following the election.