CONTEXT
Afghan presidential and provincial elections took place on August 20, 2009. Twelve and a half million Afghan voters registered for the second democratic presidential election in this country since the fall of the Taliban in November 2001. Despite a Taliban call for a boycott, and intimidation and threats against those participating in the elections, an estimated 45 per cent of Afghans went to the polls in what proved to be a relatively peaceful election. There were 36 men and women running for the presidency. Ultimately, however, it was a race between two candidates: incumbent President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah.

To be declared the victor, the successful candidate must win more than 50 percent of the vote; otherwise, there will be a run-off between the two candidates in October. At the time of publication, the latest vote tally had Karzai leading Abdullah. However, the country’s fraud watchdogs announced that they are investigating hundreds of serious complaints, including ballot-box stuffing on a massive scale, and this may affect the outcome of the vote and eventually force a run-off.

PARTNERS
The operation lasted six days, from August 17 through August 23, 2009. Throughout, Eurovision worked in close cooperation with our partner in Kabul, SNG, who has operated a feed point there since May 2009. We were able to provide clients with the full broadcast services. These services included three stand-up positions and tape play-out. During this operation, Eurovision handled literally hundreds of transmissions for clients from all over the world.

According to Eurovision News Producer Olivier Lalo, the biggest challenge for this story was setting up a safe and secure operation in Kabul to allow broadcasters to go live, feed tapes and work comfortably. SNG Broadcast Services and AKE, an international security company, together operate a Media Centre in the Kabul diplomatic area and plan and provide trips throughout Afghanistan in relative security. Eurovision maintains close working relationships with both of these organizations and these partnerships were critical to the success of the operation, said Lalo.

RESULT
The Afghan elections mark the third time that Eurovision has provided services from Kabul since the fall of the Taliban. Lalo reports that the conditions were extremely difficult, as is generally the case in this war-torn country.

“I arrived in Kabul in the early morning of August 15, 2009. That morning, a suicide car bomber struck NATO's headquarters at the core of Kabul's most fortified district, inside several rings of security around the embassies and government buildings by the presidential palace. In fact, the attack was just 200 meters from our feed point. The massive blast shook my office and a huge amount of smoke was visible from behind our Eurovision stand-up positions. Almost immediately, we started getting requests from clients who had just arrived in Kabul. They wanted to go live and report on the attack. We were operational in a few minutes and conducted lives all day long.”

Lalo noted the Eurovision team’s confidence and expertise in handling this extremely difficult set up.

“Adding to the overall challenge of reporting a hotly contested election in a dangerous place, we also had very significant security issues to address. We had VIP guests visiting the Media Centre and the Eurovision operation. These included Mr. Kai Vittrup, the EUPOL Chief of Police; General Philippe Morillon, the EU Head of Electoral Commission for Afghanistan; and Thierry Mariani, Special Envoy in Afghanistan for French President Sarkozy. Before agreeing to go live, each of these guests would have their own security come to our location and check our security. I was really proud that they were satisfied every time. Security is absolutely vital to Eurovision’s operations and we take it very, very seriously.”
— Olivier Lalo, Eurovision News Producer