Small hands reached into boxes and pulled out the names of over 6,000 candidates for placement on the ballots for the 2005 upcoming Wolesi Jirga and Provincial Council elections.

The Ballot Lottery was held on Sunday and Monday, 26-27 June 2005 at the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. Sixty-nine lotteries (two per province and one for the Kuchi constituency) took place to determine the order of nominated candidates on the ballot for the upcoming elections.

To further ensure that the process was random, a number of Afghan children were on hand to draw the candidate names for placement. A transparent and completely random lottery process is necessary as most believe that a prime place on the ballot will translate into more votes. No other ballot placement option will produce the random draw for positions on the ballot necessary to prevent name bias in ballot order.

Members of the media and Afghan and international stakeholders were in attendance at the drawing as well as stakeholders, including observers and representatives of political parties.