Bullets and Ballots

Afghan and allied officials in Kabul are struggling to come up with a plan to go forward with nationwide presidential elections Aug. 20, despite a worsening insurgency that has left whole swaths of the country in the hands of the Taliban. India’s ongoing vote offers a model. Indian authorities have staggered balloting for parliamentary elections in five stages over the course of a month. The plan is designed in part to deal with the difficulties of up to 714 million voters going to the polls. But the approach also allows security forces to concentrate in specific trouble spots. Indian authorities staged the first round of voting Thursday in areas where Maoist insurgents are active. Rebels attacked more than a dozen polling stations in election violence that left at least 17 dead, but overall the initial vote was widely considered a success in India. Balloting in Indian Kashmir, the scene of another long-running insurgency, will be a key test of the approach as it unfolds in the coming weeks. U.S., European and Afghan officials should pay close attention to how the election goes from a security perspective in Kashmir in the days ahead, especially since many of the militants in Kashmir originate from Pakistan, just as they do in Afghanistan.