New Delhi, India — Afghanistan President Babrak Karmal and thousands of Kabul citizens voted Sunday in the first election since a Marxist takeover in 1978, official Kabul Radio announced.
The elections were held in Kabul city and Kabul province to choose representatives for district councils to decide local issues such as education, housing and taxes.
Kabul Radio monitored in New Delhi said 75 representatives were elected in two areas of Kabul, but did not say when the election would be completed.
“In order to realize real democracy in the country, every person must participate in the elections,” Karmal said in an hour-long speech broadcast by Kabul Radio on Saturday.
However, a spokesman for Afghan rebel groups in New Delhi dismissed the elections as an attempt by the communist government to appear democratic.
The elections are the first for government officials in Afghanistan since the April 1978 Marxist takeover; Soviet forces invaded the following year to help install Karmal’s pro Soviet government.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 16, 1985
