Afghans elect their president tomorrow with Karzai as favorite

Kabul, 19 Aug 2009. - Afghanistan held tomorrow, Thursday, the second presidential election since the U.S. invasion and the fall late 2001 the Taliban regime, who have called for a boycott and today have become sowing campaign of violence with assault to a bank in Kabul and an assassination attempt in Kandahar.
According to the Afghan Interior Ministry, the assault to the bank was resolved with the death of three insurgents at the hands of police, three of whose officers had three wounded.
In addition, a district chief and a tribal leader died and another person was injured by an exploding bomb their vehicle in the southern province of Kandahar, said a police source told Efe.
During the campaign, the Taliban have stepped up attacks on both foreign forces as Afghan authorities, in an attempt to deter at 17 million Afghans called to the polls tomorrow to elect a president and members of provincial councils.
To counter the Taliban boycott and "ensure broad participation" elections, the Afghan government did not hesitate now, when we celebrate Independence Day, to adopt censorship by prohibiting the dissemination of news about "any incident of violence" during voting hours.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (an ethnic Pashtun majority in the country), the favorites according to a survey by the American Institute IRI, which promises a second round of the Tajik Abdullah Abdullah, former foreign minister and former deputy commander of the Afghan who led the anti-Taliban resistance and was killed days before the 11-S, Ahmed Shah Massoud.
According to the poll, the big surprise of the elections could be given by the Hazara (Shia Muslim ethnic group located primarily in eastern Afghanistan) Ramazan Bashardost, who is running from a simple tent outside parliament and in the third figure of intent vote, ahead of former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani.
Of the 41 original candidates, two of them women, a dozen have gone to support Karzai, who at the last minute has also attracted the support of the Uzbek Rashid Dostum, a controversial leader of the northern Afghan accused of war crimes and betraying all his former partners.
With some 100,000 soldiers of NATO or U.S. committed to ensuring a safe environment for weeks leading vote-in special operations were carried out in the Taliban strongholds in the southern province of Helmand, security is the great challenge of this election.
Karzai seeks reelection to a subject people increasingly to higher levels of violence, more than 2,100 civilians killed in military action in 2008 - and it remains among the poorest in the world, with one third of the population (7.3 million) threatened by hunger, as reported today Oxfam.
Oxfam joined critical voices against the corruption that has characterized the mandate of Karzai, who has prevented aid gets to its rightful recipients, and demanded "major reforms" to the future government to prevent further squandering funds.
Opponents of Afghan President also questioned the policy of alliances and its collusion with various sectors to ensure power, particularly with the reviled Dostum but also with other Afghan leaders, including Mohammed Fahim and Ismail Khan.
The BBC helped yesterday, Tuesday, to suspicions of fraud to disseminate its own investigation found that attempts to sell hundreds of voter cards and purchasing support for certain candidates.
"There has been traditional fraud in Afghanistan and this year there will be audits to detect it. The Afghan election commission has international support and I know that your preparation for the elections, if not flawless, stays close, "said Efe Maria Espinosa, the observation mission of the EU.
Analysts point out that after almost eight years of effort in Afghanistan, the international community can not afford failed elections and is willing to be benevolent to the Afghan electoral process, which takes place without any census.
Bashardost said he did not doubt that it has done everything possible to encourage Karzai, with induction attempts to vote as the recent publication of the U.S. Institute survey that gives the victor.
Until September 3 will not be known the provisional results of the election, which shall be final 17. If you had to hold a second round, this would be in October

Finish the campaign with a massive rally Taliban opposition and called for a boycott

Kabul, 17 Aug 2009. - Thousands of Afghans marched to the stadium in Kabul to provide support for the main opposition candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, the last day of the presidential election campaign in Afghanistan, where Taliban reiterated their call to boycott.
The elections, in which the favorites the current president, Hamid Karzai, will be held on October 20 in an atmosphere of complete uncertainty about the threats of Taliban insurgents, that described as "propaganda" American in a statement posted on the Internet .
The Taliban have denied that any agreement reached to allow the process, the authorities had announced one in July in western Badghis-and said that "most of Afghanistan" is under its control, so "there is no possibility of holding elections" , said, "except in a few cities and provincial centers."
Despite the fundamentalist threat, thousands of people with hats and flags came today celestial city stadium to wrap Abdullah, a dentist and former foreign minister who polls show the main rival of Karzai.
The candidate himself came to the dais between shoved and dragged by a horde of followers that his private guard, a group of Tajik armed with "Kalashnikov" - barely able to contain, to the point that several people suffered bruises.
In the stadium, followers of Abdullah uttered shouts of support for their candidate, a former lieutenant of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance killed by fundamentalists in 2001 - whose photographs dominated the stage.
"Everyone wants change in Afghanistan and we are confident we will win," said Efe a spokesman for the campaign, while a white helicopter threw leaflets over the stadium to the delight of the audience with a message for change.
The last known survey published by the American Institute IRI, gives Abdullah 26 percent of the vote, behind the 44 percent awarded Karzai, a result that would the two candidates to a second round.
"To help youth, you must all lean to the national development of Afghanistan. Help me to win and I will help you, "he desgañitaba the candidate before the microphone as the crowd chanted his name and called it" useless " Karzai.
According to experts, the vote of Abdullah, father and mother Pashtun Tajik proceed on all of the members of this last race, second in the country and mass today at the stadium in Kabul, the place used by the Taliban to execute inmates.
Presidential elections are marked precisely by the threat of boycott of the Taliban and their attempts to derail the process with actions, such as the attack on Saturday at the ISAF headquarters in Afghanistan, which resulted in seven deaths.
Although the Government has promised to mobilize all its resources to protect the elections, Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, acknowledged Efe on Sunday that its forces will not be able to guarantee one hundred percent security.
In their race to proclaim the winner without a runoff-for what you need more than 50 percent of the votes, Karzai spent today to rest and his team announced the withdrawal of four candidates that they will support the president.
"We met with him and saw that is committed to democracy and development in Afghanistan," said Efe one of them, Dr. Nasin Anise, who denied having negotiated a position in a hypothetical future government of Karzai.
President, Pashtun, has joined so far supports a dozen candidates and commitment to add votes of the various Afghan ethnic groups, although their opponents accuse him of having given to this to regional warlords and former "warlords".
"Seeing the kind of national political participation and we have created and the fact that a dozen candidates support us, things have worked well," said Efe campaign spokesman for Karzai, Waheed Omar.
Abdullah today visited several provinces in the afternoon, as did the candidate Ashraf Ghani and Ramazan Bashardost, the latter an eccentric candidate who has run his business from a tent in Kabul and has moved it to the third position estimate to vote.

Karzai supports only foreign troops participating in televised debate

Kabul, 16 Aug 2009. - Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said today that ensured the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan while the country is not prepared for his safety during his only appearance in a televised debate on the occasion of the presidential elections .
The campaign will end tomorrow, but so far Karzai-major-favorite in the polls, had refused to go the state broadcaster RTA studies to compare their ideas with those of its main rivals.
"We need foreign troops until the country self-sufficient, "said Karzai, who reviewed the achievements of his government in recent years and has sought to show that an idea long term to Afghanistan.
In the country there are currently some 100,000 foreign soldiers from about forty countries, but despite successive increases of soldiers in recent months ordered by governments Taliban activity has increased.
Just today, the secretary general of NATO, Fogh Rasmussen Andreas, "vital" mission that NATO plays in Afghanistan, where the maximum alert is registered after the attack Saturday at the headquarters of the organization in Kabul.
Despite the deteriorating security situation, much of the debate was however focused on economic improvement proposals and solutions to underdevelopment Afghanistan suffering, beaten for nearly three decades of war.
Accompanied on stage Karzai two of its major rivals, Ashraf Ghani and Ramazan Bashardost, who has moved it, according to the latest known-to third place in the preferences of voters for his perceived closeness to the Afghan people.
"I think I've done very well, but I won, but the people. I vote because I'm alone, but I am clean and honest, "assessed Efe his television role Bashardost minutes after the debate.
The candidate has campaigned from a store located in Kabul, and his populist message of support the poor stopped drinking Coca-Cola because he said not everyone could afford it-has become popular among voters, analysts say.
The debate, broadcast on state television Afghan consisted of two games per round of questions and an Islamic prayer performed by a local journalist, to which answered the three candidates one at a time and without exchange opinions among themselves.
Both Ghani and Bashardost-both former ministers attacked Karzai, the current president during the debate, with references the alleged inefficiency and corruption of his government, although President defended himself with an eye toward the next term.
"Early in my government revenue per person was $ 170. Are now 490 and still rising. I have complete confidence in the free market, and Afghanistan is a free market, "said Karzai.
But the big surprise of the debate was the absence of Karzai's main rival in the polls, Abdullah Abdullah, who said the presenter, days earlier rejected the terms of the appearance, his spokesman would not comment Efe reason.
The last known survey published by the International Republican Institute, predicts 44 percent of the vote for Hamid Karzai, six points below the required majority to be crowned victor in the first round.
The poll, released on August 14, gives 26 percent of the votes Abdullah and 10 percent to Deputy Bashardost, but only the top two candidates will to the second round if neither achieves more than half of the votes.
By participating in the debate today, Afghan politicians sold one of his last opportunities to present public opinion, as the election campaign officially ends at midnight on Monday and Tuesday.
Voting will take place on August 20 and to ensure the safety of colleges today the government promised to table all its resources, recognizing that the Taliban will out a massive campaign of intimidation.

Taliban advance and desire for development of the population make the campaign

Kabul, 14 Aug 2009. - Some 17 million Afghans are registered to vote in the second elections presidential since the fall Taliban in Afghanistan, dialed by the advance of the insurgents Taliban, well as cravings reconstruction and development of the population.
"This is one of the most difficult electoral exercises I've seen," said a few days ago to the media on special representative of the UN in Afghanistan, Kai Eide.
Las authorities project sending almost 3,200 donkeys to carrying the polls to places most inaccessible of this country of orography complicated, but, anecdotes aside, the main concern is the security situation.
"It is the factor Taliban. We can not expect a high turnout in some areas and provinces. In more than 10 districts will be difficult to hold elections, "said Efe the Foundation spokesperson Afghan for a Free Elections and Justas (FEFA), Jandar Spinghar.
In recent weeks, international forces have launched several operations in the traditional Taliban stronghold of Helmand (south) in an attempt to ensure security before the presidential elections, the insurgents have decided to boycott.
In Kabul, many citizens complain that the situation has worsened, which recognized the own boss of foreign troops, Stanley McChrystal, who admitted in a recent interview with the newspaper "Wall Street Journal" that the Taliban "have taken advantage. "
The insurgents have a strong presence in much of southern and eastern Afghanistan, areas where the ethnic Pashtun majority, which traditionally come from the Taliban, but also the president, Hamid Karzai, who is running to republish mandate.
Karzai is presented with the older "warlord" Tajik Mohammed Fahim as a candidate to vice president, a move that analysts attribute an attempt to split loyalties in the former Northern Alliance and attract the votes of the ethnic Tajik a, the second more populous of Afghanistan.
In that quarry of vote basa their hopes the that surveys point out as more potent rival of Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, a former minister of Affairs that collaborated closely with the guerrilla assassinated Ahmed Shah Mehsud, of the Alliance del Norte, in their resistance against the Taliban pre-11-S.
They and another 41 candidates in the running, former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, concur to the elections as independents and outside the umbrella of political parties, which have hardly curdled in the fragile and gilt Afghan democracy.
"Tajiks vote the Tajiks. The Pashtuns the Pashtuns. Each to his own, this is the great problem of Afghanistan, "said Efe a student Kabuli in the course of a rally of Ghani.
Loyalties apart, the difficult orography and the lack of data plausible make it almost impossible venture a prognosis exact, beyond the advantage that all analysts attach Karzai, seen for months by various commentators as the "winner inevitable."
The two most recent surveys, conducted in July separately by the International Republican Institute and the U.S. Glevum analysis center, attributed, respectively, Karzai, 44 and 45 percent of the votes determined, 18 and 20 points ahead of Abdullah, but that outcome would require to hold a runoff between the two.
With the fight anti-Taliban in hands of international troops and the Army Afghan, all candidates focus on the development, reconstruction the country and the wealth creation, as they celebrate rallies under extreme security conditions.
"They are developing strategies. There is only tactics, "said Efe a western security source on the candidates in the elections, which are held together to elections for provincial councils.
While Kabul is flooded with electoral panels and large images of their candidates, the international troops try to get the 29,000 ballots for voting are emplaced before 20 August, even in areas under Taliban control.
After that date, a count that is promised slow: initial results for the September 3, definitive on 17 of that month, and second rounds, of be necessary, for the first week October.

Hundreds of Afghan women support opposition candidate at a rally in Kabul

Kabul, 12 Aug 2009. - Plays with celestial burkas, hijabs or veils of colors, hundreds of Afghan women joined today to the campaign of elections 20 presidential August in Afghanistan in a support act opposition candidate Ashraf Ghani and of vindication own.
"We deserve at last a government good. We will vote for the safety and to bring peace to Afghanistan. We are already tired of struggle and war, "said Efe between shy smiles the student Farishta Baseri, shortly before the start of act in the capital.
With women in the front seats and some men-minus-wagered behind, Ghani girded to its slogan electoral, "New beginning", and promised invest in the "daughters the country", which will be, said, the "coming businesswomen".
"The regime (of President, Hamid Karzai) has not willing nor judges nor police for women. Yo sí I will, and addition I will give them properties and health care ", assured Ghani between applause of her followers and shouts occasional of" Allah is great ".
The candidate, ex minister of Finance in the Government of Karzai, appeared walking walk by the lateral of a large tent pink installed in the garden of his house, easily accessible in the center of Kabul but, like so many other buildings, well walled.
De intellectual formation and with experience of more than a decade in the World Bank, Ghani was considered one of the candidates with more possibilities of putting in distress the candidate Karzai, but the last survey grants you barely 3 percent of the vote.
However, both Ghani as Karzai have among Pashtuns its main quarry of followers, so that the outcome of first can influence the career to the reelection of current president, that aspires to imposed without need for second round.
The adversaries of Karzai cite the ineffectiveness of Government, corruption widespread and its toleration towards the "warlords" as main stains on its work manager of these years, a message that Ghani, 60 years, stressed during his intervention.
"My goal is to provide a Government honored. The Afghans will vote to a person honored ", kept, after asking the female support and promise new opportunities of work for Afghan women, who suffer a secular discrimination.
After years of strict seclusion under the Taliban regime, Afghan women still face to demolishers challenges: its rate of literacy round barely 21 percent, and in these elections there are only two women between the 41 candidates.
"Female participation will be low. In some provinces, there have been few women. And in other, the leader tribal came to pick the voting card for all of them, so the process can be adulterated "said Efe a spokesman for the Afghan Foundation for a Free and Fair Elections (FEFA), Jandar Spinghar.
The two women candidates, said Spinghar, have been unable scroll to campaign to rural areas due to the security situation, which has deteriorated in recent years, with an increase of the activities of the Taliban in large areas of southern and east.
In acts of campaign, however, candidates expose their ideas for the development and reconstruction the country and promise jobs and opportunities as those claims Nargis Madadi, a young student coming to Kabul from Wardak (east) who wants be a doctor.
"Today we live something better than with the Taliban, but not I believe the elections change things. I want study medicine, but the current situation not me facilitates the way ", account Efe during the act of Ghani.
His desire, says she same between applause, depends in much of that Afghanistan return to the path of peace after decades of destruction and an armed conflict that him poisons the future.