Word: karzai
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Muhammad Shafiq Popal is one of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's more formidable opponents - yet he isn't a chieftain, a warlord or even a candidate in the Aug. 20 Afghanistan presidential election. Just 30 years old, Popal is a rare individual in the country: a community organizer who heads the Afghanistan Youth National and Social Organization (AYNSO), an NGO that, in a nation marked by division, transcends religion, ethnicity and tribe. AYNSO's broad objective is to promote democracy and human rights. But Popal's current objective is much more specific: mobilizing AYNSO's 32,000 members to unseat...
...threats suppress voter turnout among the Pashtuns of the south, who make up 40% of the population, they could undercut the legitimacy of the election. It would spell trouble for President Hamid Karzai, who is still the favorite, though he is trying to avoid a troublesome runoff with Abdullah Abdullah, the former Foreign Minister and Northern Alliance candidate whose campaign has gained momentum of late. If southern voters stay home in large enough numbers, say analysts, there is a slight but not impossible scenario that northern voters could dictate the election's outcome in favor of Abdullah, further destabilizing...
...NATO forces have reinforced checkpoints and shut down traffic near central voting stations. Police chief General Mirwais Khan says that while several surrounding districts are "hostile," security is "assured" for a peaceful election in the city as a whole. The Afghan intelligence chief has confirmed reports that Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president's half-brother and head of the Kandahar provincial council, has brokered deals with some influential Taliban commanders and warlords for a temporary cease-fire in some of the country's most violent areas. (Read about a proposal to buy off the Taliban to achieve victory...
Sentiments on the street are mixed. "If those RPGs hit our campaign headquarters, imagine how many casualties we would have," says Fariba Ahmadi Kakar, a member of parliament who supports Karzai. She says she's not satisfied with the extra security measures in place and wants the vote to be postponed. On the other hand, Agha Wali, 32, says he's sure polling stations will be safe and that he plans to vote for Ashraf Ghani, the policy-oriented former Finance Minister. Shafiqa, 21, insists through the cloak of her burqa that she will cast a vote to re-elect...
...have struck a chord. With less than a week until Afghans go to the polls to vote for only the second time to choose a president, a pair of recent polls showed he had alternately 8% or 10% of voters surveyed last month, placing him third behind president Hamid Karzai and his rival, Abdullah, and ahead of Ashraf Ghani, the brainy former finance minister...