Word: pashtuns
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...early returns from Afghanistan's presidential election had the smell of a decorous massage job. With 10% of districts reporting, the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, and his main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, the former Foreign Minister, were tied, with about 40% each. But few of those votes came from Karzai's Pashtun strongholds in the south, where turnout was light - owing to Taliban threats - but heavily managed. "It's not exactly one man, one vote out in the rural areas," a Western diplomat told me. "The tribal leader gathers everyone together and says, 'We're voting for Candidate X.'" In some cases...
...weeks later. Karzai is expected to come out ahead, but it appears unlikely he'll carry the 50% of the vote plus one needed to avoid a runoff in October. Should a runoff happen, analysts agree the country will retreat to ethnic and regional divisions, with the majority of Pashtuns across the south backing Karzai, and Tajiks, the second largest ethnic group, rallying in the north behind Abdullah, the son of a Pashtun father and Tajik mother. Abdullah is also more closely identified with the Northern Alliance, which ousted the Taliban - a largely Pashtun movement - from power in late...
...most Pashtuns, there is only one acceptable outcome. Gholam Mohammad, 24, a taxi driver in the capital who voted for Karzai, says Afghanistan's leaders have historically been Pashtuns like him, a tradition that should never change. Still, he approves of Karzai's choices of Mohammad Fahim, a Tajik, and Karim Khalili, a Hazara, as his two Vice Presidents, a choice he thinks will help ensure some cohesion among the different groups around the country. And what if Karzai somehow lost and a non-Pashtun took his place? "It would not be good," says Mohammad...
...Such sentiments are standard in the Pashtun-dominated south. "The Pashtun people are the owners of this country, no one else," says Abdul Khan, 63, a tribal elder from Kandahar city. Another local Pashtun man said he would rather vote for a Hindu before Abdullah, a fellow Muslim. A second vote for Karzai would suffice, if the Taliban threats and voting controversy...
...home over concerns about security in the streets. Apathy over the quality of presidential candidates in the field made the decision easier, he says. "But it looks like there were not as many problems like we expected," he explains, adding that he would have backed Karzai, a fellow Pashtun. "Now I really regret that I didn't vote." He may yet get a second chance if the contest goes to a run-off - and the country has to pluck up its courage once more...