News footage from the blighted country that is Afghanistan tends to reinforce the impression that its dusty landscape is low on the sort of 21st century high-tech facilities that we in the west take for granted.
Watching coverage of the election there on last night's Newsnight, I was amazed to see that while the inky fingerprints deployed are somewhat rudimentary, the Afghan ballot papers seem to be a step ahead of ours in terms of print sophistication. The papers were produced in full colour, and featured head shots of the candidates, to boot. That would have come in handy at the recent European elections here.
With a population of circa 30m, even given the questionable number within that actually allowed/able to vote, this will have been a nice little job for somebody. The BBC puts the number eligible to vote at 17m. I find myself fascinated by the production logistics, and wonder who printed them, where, and how.
