Summary
Millions of Afghans turned out to vote in the country’s first Afghan-led elections held in three decades, after a campaign in which presidential candidates directly debated the key issues.
Afghan institutions administered and supervised the presidential and provincial council elections while Afghan soldiers and police assumed primary responsibility for ensuring security at polling stations on election day, August 20.
Allegations of fraud in the balloting were identified promptly and addressed by two electoral bodies.
The significant number of U.S. forces arriving in Kandahar province more than doubled the number of coalition forces available for security-related tasks, allowing the Canadian Forces to further focus on protecting the population.
The quarter under review witnessed the heaviest loss of life for any three-month period since 2001 among the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which had been greatly expanded. Eleven members of the Canadian Forces were killed. Afghan civilian casualties were high, with more than two thirds from insurgent violence.
The security responsibility shouldered by the Afghan National Army (ANA) increased in Kandahar City and surrounding villages, the area of responsibility where the Canadian Forces are training and mentoring the ANA.
Counterinsurgency tactics similar to those of the Canadian Forces were a key element for a new military approach in Afghanistan recommended by the ISAF Commander.
Despite heightened insurgent violence, Canada achieved progress toward priority objectives, including reaching the 2011 target for the number of clients receiving microfinance loans.
School rehabilitation, one of Canada’s three signature development projects, saw the completion of seven more schools for a total of 12 to date, with a further 21 under construction.
Several other education initiatives also moved ahead, including training of teachers and principals from community-based schools.
Progress was reported in two other Canadian signature projects: more than 880,000 children across Afghanistan were vaccinated against polio in the quarter; and Canadian project engineers tackled technical aspects of manufacturing new gates for the irrigation canals associated with the Dahla Dam.
