Word: campaigners
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...just a half-hour flight from Kabul, and Sherzai's successes in the province were considered emblematic of potential solutions elsewhere in the country. "The Obama visit is what started it all," says Nasir Ahmad, one of Sherzai's advisers and a childhood friend. "Early in his presidential campaign Obama said that the Karzai administration was weak. Then he came to Jalalabad, and discussed with Gul Agha the smooth running of the province and his many successes, so [Sherzai] thought maybe he could do the same for the whole country, not just his province...
...However many eyebrows and hackles a Sherzai campaign for the Aug. 20 polls would have raised, his abrupt withdrawal invokes the specter of a lackluster election season destined to demoralize Afghans already wary of the unfulfilled promises of democracy. Sherzai was widely considered the only candidate who could mount a robust challenge against Karzai - whose popularity has plummeted after seven years of ineffective rule and allegations of corruption and nepotism. On May 2, however, Sherzai met privately with the President for four hours. After he emerged Sherzai announced that he had changed his mind and would no longer...
...Sherzai had continued with his campaign he would have had to step down from his presidential-appointed post as governor - a prestigious and influential position he would be unlikely to regain if he lost to Karzai. A spokesman for Sherzai said his boss "decided Karzai would be a better leader for Afghanistan." Sherzai's campaign manager was stunned. "This is an absolute betrayal of everything we worked on," spluttered Khalid Pashtoon...
...stood side by side fighting for our country/ Leave me some pride in those memories/ Your worth is more than in killing yourself/ You slaughter your brother while calling out God's name/ Come rebuild Afghanistan with me instead." Sherzai chuckled when I asked if this was his campaign slogan. "Do you think it will work?" he asked. Maybe it wouldn't have. But at least it would have got Afghans thinking about what could have been...
...government denied a visa to a Swedish diplomat who was supposed to be part of a European mission to Sri Lanka. On April 29, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President's brother, met with the British and French foreign secretaries and upbraided them for being "duped by the misinformation campaign the LTTE was carrying out," according to a report of the meeting published on the Defense Ministry's website. The Red Cross and U.N. agencies have raised several alarms about civilian casualties - a U.N. document leaked last week estimated that more than 6,400 civilians have been killed...