HERAT, Afghanistan - Even before last week's announcement about a presidential election runoff, voters in this western province made it clear they were not interested in participating in another vote.

"Nobody values my vote," said Shahab Aziz, 24, a shopkeeper in the Ghoreyan district of Herat province. "I cast my ballot in August, but I will certainly not do it again." Aziz and others say they have been disappointed by their experience with democracy.

"I regret having voted," Aziz said. "I thought that these elections would be far more transparent than the presidential elections in 2004, but it turns out the level of fraud might be even higher."

Farid Sorosh cast his vote in August, despite living in a section of Herat province where the security situation is precarious and the nearest polling station was more than 20 miles away from his home. He says he won't do it again. "I already had some concerns about fraud in the first round," he said. "It was a bad sign that there were no international observers in many places."

Too few monitors

Just a few hundred international observers were scattered throughout the country, with more than 27,000 polling stations to monitor. Due to security concerns, many monitors were restricted in their movements, unable to view more than a tiny fraction of the vote.

There will be few polling stations for the runoff election - and fewer election observers as well.

Many fear that the runoff will face many of the same problems that dogged the first round of voting, while resulting in the same outcome: Karzai installed for an additional five-year term.

Even some of those who served as election observers say they would not participate in a second round.

"The first round of elections didn't live up to expectations at all," said election observer Hamed Mehri. "Foreign observers should have been present during the election process, and also the representatives of political parties. The people from the Independent Election Commission should have worked justly and transparently, but they didn't."

Fraud expected

Political analyst Ershad Khatibi agrees that a second round is not ideal, but insists that the first vote was too flawed to allow the results to stand. But even he holds out little hope that the situation will improve with the second round.

"Of course there will be fraud again," he said. "Moreover, insurgents will try to instill more fear in people so they will not go to vote."

"I participated in the first round because I want a better future for my country, but now I am very disappointed," said Mohammad Naderi, a shopkeeper. "I will not vote in the second round, because there will just be double the trouble than the first. Moreover, poor people like me can't leave their work several times for elections."

Mohammad Shafe Ferozi is a reporter in Afghanistan who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting. Web site: www.iwpr.net.