Afghans refugees see hope in their absentee ballots

Sympathizers of the other 17 candidates, including Karzai's chief rival, Yunis Qanooni, are also busy here trying to win over voters, particularly from ethnic minority groups.

Yet there are Afghan refugees who do not want to participate in the polls. Rebel groups like the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e Islami have threatened to disrupt the polls. Their supporters in the refugee camps clandestinely distributed pamphlets warning Afghans not to vote.

"It is American-sponsored elections. It is un-Islamic to vote for America's puppets like Karzai," says one warning. "Let's wage jihad to liberate Afghanistan and reinstall Islamic government."

There were sporadic incidents where the supporters of Taliban and other militant groups tore the posters of Karzai and other candidates and issued threats to the workers by telephone.

"There are minor incidents, and there might be a few hiccups also, but Pakistan's law enforcement agencies have made satisfactory security arrangements. We expect that polls will be held peacefully," says Mr. Bearup. Thousands of armed police are set to be deployed in and around the refugee camps on polling day. Officials say strict security measures have been taken as extra military troops would be deployed along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Some refugees are afraid that they can be deported if they register.

"I want to vote, but if I register, I appear on records, then I can be forcibly sent to Afghanistan," says Fida Khan, a grocery shopkeeper in Peshawar.

Only 28 percent of the refugees registered are women, as compared to 41 percent within Afghanistan.

"We faced real difficulties to take women out of the houses," says Shakeela Mohyuddin, an educated Afghan woman who participated in the registration process as volunteer. "In Afghan culture, women's participation is unheard of so men were reluctant and we had little time to motivate the women here. But we told them that rights of men and women are now equal in Afghanistan."

Ms. Mohyuddin says that she has decided to vote for Karzai and is hoping he can bring a lasting peace so that she might return.

But Rehman Gul and his family, like many Afghans, will not make a decision until the tribal elders sit in a jirga and announce whom they will support.

While the process has brought many of these refugees new hope for peace in their homeland, not all are ready yet to return. Many refugees remain here to maintain a fallback home in case the rest of their family in Afghanistan needs to flee again.

Gul is among those waiting for more peaceful conditions before returning. But his young sons are already packing their bags.

"I want to see the complete end of warlord rule before I return, but my children would like to run toward our mountains, our land, even before the fall of the night," he says. "It has been like a long and unending night for us; we wish for a new day."

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