Afghan citizens are urged to report on local voting activities during the Presidential elections on 20 August.

Afghanistan’s Presidential elections on 20 August will be monitored by Afghan citizens, following the introduction of online messaging service, Alive in Afghanistan.

More than 30 candidates are today challenging the incumbent President Hamid Karzai, who was elected in 2004. Favourite to win the election, he was a major player in the removal of the Taliban in 2001, which is attempting to disrupt these elections using bombs and mortar attacks.

The online service allows citizens – 15 million of whom are registered voters – to report on their local elections, including their progress, whether there have been any problems and voter turnout. To send reports, people can send SMS texts, emails, report directly on the website, or send a tweet to the organisation.

A map on the site’s home page displays red markers that indicate where reports have been received. Clicking on them, a report from Partika states that ‘voting is OK’, while ‘a reporter has been assaulted’. Messages from citizens in Kandahar state: ‘Explosions heard’; ‘Women voting in Kandahar’; and ‘Illegal campaigning by Karzai’.

The site stated: “We recognise that, given limitations of access to technology, it may be a limited subset of the privileged who will be able to use Alive in Afghanistan’s open system to report on the election.

“Despite the limitation we feel that, as long as recognition is given, the potential impact of the project is still such that we should go forward, doing our best to provide access to all.”

The site has been launched following the success of similar sites, Alive in Baghdad and Alive in Gaza.