Today Afghans will brave extensive Taliban intimidation and sometimes travel great distances to vote in presidential and provincial council elections.
The optimism among the Afghan population following the rout of the Taliban from power has largely dissipated, expectations of vastly improved lives have been fulfilled for only a few, government corruption and ineffectiveness run rampant, and Taliban resurgence threatens the lives of people in much of the south and east of the country.
The elections represent a crucial opportunity to give Afghans a sense of at least some control over their future. And estimated 17 million Afghans are eligible to cast ballots.
Equally important, the elections could reinvigorate and improve Afghan governance--an absolute necessity for the success of counterinsurgency, stabilization and reconstruction efforts. But even a fair and reasonably violence-free election does not guarantee the much-needed improvements in governance.
In a healthy way, the presidential election, which only a few weeks ago President Hamid Karzai seemed to have sewn up, has recently become considerably more contested. Out of the 41 presidential candidates--two of whom are womenÑfour have emerged as the front-runners.
Still ahead in the polls with a substantial lead is Karzai. Nonetheless, the corruption and ineffectiveness of his government over the last four years have greatly diminished his legitimacy and popularity. Thus, to avoid a runoff--if he gets less than 50% of the vote--Karzai has struck deals with some of the most notorious warlords and tribal leaders.
Main Candidates
Hamid Karzai
The Afghan leader once enjoyed the favor of the West and strong domestic support. Karzai has led Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban--first as the appointed interim leader in 2001, and then as elected president since 2004. A Pashtun tribal leader, he draws much of his support from fellow Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group. Opponents have accused him of using his incumbency to unfair advantage during this race. Polls have put his support at about 45%, making him the front-runner but suggesting that he will have trouble garnering the absolute majority he would need to win Thursday’s vote.
Abdullah Abdullah
Abdullah, trained as an ophthalmologist, came to world prominence as foreign minister and spokesman for the Northern Alliance, which helped American forces topple the Taliban in 2001. He was a senior aide and confidant to Ahmed Shah Masoud, who was assassinated just before the Sept. 11 attacks. Abdullah has a Pashtun father, but his main political identity is as a Tajik, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan’s north.
Ramazan Bashardost
A lawmaker and former Cabinet minister, Ramazan Bashardost is a self-styled populist and ascetic whose campaign office is a tent pitched outside parliament.
He refrains from eating meat in what he says is a statement of solidarity with Afghanistan’s poor. He is an ethnic Haz ara, a Shiite Muslim group that makes up about 10% of the country’s population.
Ashraf Ghani
An urbane, western-educated technocrat, Ghani has spent much of his adult life in exile. He served as Afghanistan’s finance minister, but broke with Karzai and left the government in 2004. Like Karzai, he is from a prominent Pashtun family, and may draw off some of the president’s support from the ethnic group they have in common.
Media Restriction
Afghanistan has ordered all journalists not to report incidents of violence during tomorrow’s presidential election amid fears that such coverage will deter people from voting.
Two decrees were issued, one from the foreign ministry banning all broadcasts of information about violence while polls were open, and the other from the interior ministry requiring reporters to keep away from the scene of any attacks.
The decrees come as further outbreaks of violence rocked Kabul on August 19.
Bank Holdup
Police stormed a bank in Kabul on Wednesday and killed three insurgents who had taken it over, while a wave of attacks killed at least six election workers around the country on the eve of the presidential election, officials said.
According to AP, the three-man assault came a day after two militant attacks in the capital, including rockets fired at the presidential palace. It also follows a suicide car bomb explosion in front of NATO’s Kabul headquarters Saturday that killed seven, a drumbeat of attacks that would appear to signal the intent of Taliban insurgents and their militant allies to disrupt Thursday’s vote.
