Afghanistan lacks the sinews to move forward as a democracy

In addition to the lack of organizational strength, Afghan political parties lack transparent financial sources. Despite the legal requirements that forbid political parties from receiving foreign funding, in the last nine years, Afghan political parties have never paid attention to the legal restrictions of national laws, and as such, political parties have been regularly receiving foreign funding.

Both foreign funding and the inability of the Afghan government in monitoring financial sources of Afghan political parties have contributed to a situation where most of parties are the representatives of overseas political, military and religious organizations rather than the representatives of the people of Afghanistan.

Therefore, the lack of transparent funding has not only undermined any attempts of political parties in fin ancing themselves through democratic ways of membership fees and financial contribution of Afghan citizens, but also contributed to the failure of establishing a democratic two-party or multi-party system.

Negative public perception of political parties

Negative public perception of Afghan political parties has also contributed to the failure of establishing a democratic two-party or multi-party system. The reason behind the negative public perception of political parties in Afghanistan is their strong association with Islamic groups, Communist movements and ethnic group nationalists that are mostly blamed for their destructive role in the long-term conflict and civil war of the country.

Therefore, the majority of the people of Afghanistan are mostly critics of political parties to further do not see political parties as stabilizing forces and the representatives of the democratization process. As such, the Afghan government in the last nine years has politically benefited from the negative public perception of political parties and consequently has never tried to pave wa y for establishing democratic political parties for the intention of founding a political party system in the country.

However, the younger generation of Afghanistan sees political parties as stabilizing forces rather than destabilizing factors in strengthening the democratization process of the country. Apart from the positive perception of political parties among the younger generation of Afghanistan, in the post-Bonn era, both the government and the parliament of Afghanistan have been dominated by a generation of politicians who do not believe in the democratic role of political parties in the political future of Afghanistan.

As a result, in the post-2001 era, neither the government of Afghanistan nor the Afghan parliament paid significant attention to provide the ground for founding a democratic two-party or multi-party system.

In conclusion, the lack of capacity in the Afghan government to enforce national laws, the lack of organizational strength in the Afghan political parties, and the negative public perception of political parties have contributed to the failure of establishing a democratic two-party or multi-party system in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

It is, therefore, important for the international community to force the Afghan government to politically, financially and technically provide the ground for establishing nationwide and democratic political parties for the intention of founding a democratic two-party or multi-party system. If not doing so, Afghan democracy is like a dream tha t would never come true without national democratic political parties.