教授亲眼目睹了阿富汗的选举
在反恐战争中，阿富汗努力建立自己的民主国家。 8月20日举行的总统选举在选举舞弊指控中结束； 选举的结果仍不确定。 William & MaryAssistant Professor of 政府 Rani 马伦 served as an international observer for the August election. 最近，她接受了《威廉与玛丽新闻》（William & Mary 新闻）的采访，谈到了她在当地看到的情况，重新投票的前景，以及这个初出茅庐的民主制度面临的风险。
马伦是民主国际组织8月份在阿富汗的大约80名观察员之一。 While she personally witnessed few fraudulent conditions where she was stationed in the capital, Kabul, she knows her experience wasn’t shared by observers in Afghanistan’s smaller cities and outlying areas.
马伦说，重新投票的机会存在分歧。 但即将到来的冬季条件可能会决定任何可能的重新投票的时间，称第二次选举将需要在10月底之前举行。
"That’s probably the latest that it can be held due to geographic concerns," 马伦 said. "In Afghanistan, in the very high lying areas you start to have snowfall so mountains – entire villages – become inaccessible."
马伦 sees the importance of the re-vote as far reaching, and reaffirming the Afghan people’s faith in the democratic process as imperative.
"This is not only about defeating Al Qaeda, because if we don’t address the root cause of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which is desperate poverty and a system that was so corrupt, than you have the makings of another kind of scenario where Taliban come back and come back to stay and Al Qaeda finds a host that can host them," she added.