KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): The residents of southern Kandahar province have different views about winning Wolesi Jirga candidates, mostly new faces, from the province.
Based on the primary results the Independent Election Commission (IEC) has announced winners from Kandahar are Sayed Ahmad Khadem with 8,186 votes, Syed MuqtadaMiran with 7,419 votes, Mahmood Khan Nasrat 7,041 votes, Rohullah Khanzada 6,471 votes, Gul Ahmad Kamin 5,082 votes, Mohammad Omar Sherzad 4,497 votes, Syed Ahmad Selab 4,143 votes, Eng. Mohammad Arif Noorzai 3,976 votes, Fareba Ahmadi Kakar 4,965 votes, Malalai Ishaqzai 2,900 votes and Arzo Safi with 1,848 votes.
Among the previous Wolesi Jirga members who contested the polls from Kandahar, only Mahmod Khan Nasrat and Fariba Ahmadi Kakar were able to be reelected.
Sayed Ahmad Khadem and Sayed Ahmad Selab were provincial council members of Kandahar before finding their way to the Parliament.
However, other previous Parliament members from Kandahar including Haji Mullah Sayed Mohammad, Abdul Khaliq Bala Karzai, Abdul Rahim Ayubi, Hamidzai Lalai, Attaullah Habib, Mohammad Omar Nangyalai, Khalid Pashton, ShekibaHashemi and Bibi HamidaYousufi failed to be reelected.
Kandahar’s people and civil society activists say that people’s consciousness has improved compared to the past and they did not vote for their previous representatives for not representing them well in the Parliament.
Abdul Wasay Hasyal, a civil society activist and resident of Kandahar City, said that the winning candidates were new faces and they won despite massive rigging. Many candidates who were expected to win failed, he added.
 “It shows the people are wakened, tribal affiliations, money and power no longer work because previous Wolesi Jirga members and candidates had all these things but they could not win,” he said.
Hasyal said most of the winners were youth and some of them were highly educated. “People are hoping they will do a better job this time,” the activist said.
However, he complained some highly qualified and educated figures who contested the polls failed to win based on the initial results.
Rafiullah, another resident of Kandahar city, was of the same view, and said winning candidates were comparatively qualified this time. “What important is for people is the performance of their representatives and their better representation in the parliament,” he added.
The recent elections showed people had gradually become aware and they could choose candidates based on qualifications, he said.
Rafiullah asked the winning candidates to honestly serve their people and the country or face defeat in the next polls.
Sakhi Nooriwal, another dweller of Kandahar City and a civil society activist, said people this time voted irrespective of tribal affiliations and rejected major tribal leaders.
mds/ma