South Asia Center Director is quoted by RIA Novosti on the role demographics have played in Afghanistan’s transition to democracy:

Demographics have played a huge role in the transformation of Afghanistan into a member of the democratic states of the world, according to Shuja Nawaz, the director of the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center. “The Afghan people appear to have won another round with the Taliban and against the forces that want to derail the progress achieved by them – despite heavy odds – over the past decade plus,” Nawaz said.

Despite the Taliban’s threats of violence, some 60 percent of eligible voters in the country turned out for a presidential election on Saturday. According to preliminary estimates, 7 million ballots were cast at 6,000 polling stations across the country.

In explaining the country’s move towards democracy, Nawaz cited the youthful population “that is connected to each other and to the world” as well as increasing urbanization and the growing market economy, despite official sluggishness and corruption.