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  • Afghan Election

    This election is coming up soon. There is now a few days for candidates to file in their registrations.

    Hamid Karzai gets clear road to re-election as challengers fall by wayside

    4 May [Times] President Karzai's re-election campaign in Afghanistan appears almost unassailable amid opposition disarray and with less than a week to go for candidates to register for the battle.

    The Afghan President's likely re-election in the August poll follows increasing Western criticism of the corruption and incompetence of his government and despite polling data seen by The Times suggesting that he enjoyed only 15 per cent of popular support at the start of the year.

    The US and Britain have been vocal in their scepticism that Mr Karzai can rebuild his war-torn nation. ...

    The remarks, and others by US officials and the regional special envoy Richard Holbrooke, were seen widely as signalling a US move to find an alternative to Mr Karzai.

    However, that possibility now appears remote and with five days until declarations for presidential candidates end, about 64 people have applied for application papers but only two have so far submitted them. Mr Karzai is expected to register his candidacy today.

    A number of potential challengers for the presidency said at the weekend that they would not challenge Mr Karzai's re-election attempt after months of manoeuvring and backroom dealing. ...

    Amid the high-level manoeuvring there are concerns about the ability of the Afghan Government and its Western backers to mount credible elections. “The West is bent on having these elections but I think they will not be democratic,” Hamidullah Tarzi, a former minister, said.

  • #2
    Kazai registered with two running mates from the other tribes, one of them is a warload.

    Karzai registers for Afghan vote with warlord

    15 hrs ago KABUL (AFP) — Afghan President Hamid Karzai formally registered Monday to stand for re-election in August but sparked international dismay by picking a controversial warlord as one of his two running mates.

    Karzai signed up for the August 20 poll at the offices of the Independent Election Commission along with Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a key figure from the 1990s civil war, and current Vice-President Karim Khalili. ....

    He was running on a ticket with Fahim and Khalili for the "welfare and prosperity of the Afghan people," he added.

    But his choice of Fahim as one of his two would-be vice presidents was a surprise considering allegations of rights abuses against the beefy commander.

    UN officials, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, expressed "dismay" at Fahim's inclusion.

    Prominent parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai said it gave out an impression of Afghanistan as being unable to break from its past of warlordism.

    Fahim is a Tajik, the second-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, and Khalili a Hazara. Karzai hails from an influential tribe in the Pashtun community, the largest ethnic group. ...

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    • #3
      There are two strong opponent candidates. They are in talks to unite.

      Karzai opponent says in talks to field single ticket

      KABUL, May 17 (Reuters) - The two main opposition candidates in Afghanistan are in talks about uniting to defeat president Hamid Karzai in August's election, one of them said on Sunday.

      Former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani told Reuters he had no plans to withdraw from the race himself, but was in talks with former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah about joining forces.

      "Now it is essentially a tripartite race. And now we have to see how it will transform itself into a bipolar race," he said in an interview at his Kabul villa after addressing a meeting of scores of tribal chiefs gathered from the country's southeast.

      "I'm not going to withdraw. But we are going to be discussing. I have the most respect for Dr Abdullah, and we are in discussions and we are going to be continuing our discussions."

      Forty-four candidates have registered for the Aug. 20 vote. But several leading figures thought likely to challenge Karzai declined to register by the May 8 deadline, leaving Abdullah and Ghani as the highest-profile challengers.

      Diplomats say the opposition has been hampered by its inability to settle on a single candidate with broad support.

      But Ghani said the decisions by other high profile figures not to stand were a sign that the opposition was uniting. ....

      Ghani, a U.S.-educated anthropologist and former World Bank official, served under Karzai as finance minister from 2002-04. He now accuses Karzai of running an incompetent government of "patronage-based machines" that is tolerant of corruption.

      "President Karzai is speaking an atavistic language. He speaks English in order to fool the world," Ghani said.

      When Karzai speaks of transparent government, "that's my language that he borrowed from me because I wrote all his speeches," he added. ....

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