Delusion at the National Democratic Institute

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) recently issued a press release on their recommendations for the second round of voting in Afghanistan.  Their recommendations make me wonder what country their observers were in during the first round.

Here are some choice excerpts:

Security by the Afghan police and army and international forces should be enhanced so that secure voting areas are expanded….

No ballots should be sent to polling centers that are not secured by Afghan security forces and adequately staffed by the Independent Election Commission (IEC)…

Planning should begin immediately to ensure that sufficient staff from the IEC and the ECC are available for the voting, tabulation and complaint process…

Now, I don’t mean to bicker, but NDI makes it sounds like the Government of Afghanistan chose to be incompetent on election day.  While I don’t deny this is part of the problem, has NDI forgotten that the Taliban is active in at least 80% of the country?  It seems to me what they expect by election day can only follow government control over the country, not precede it.