Articles

Ahmad Ali Jalali lends his weight to President Karzai

Pajhwok

By Abasin Zaheer

KABUL - Three days ahead of the presidential elections, former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, along with his supporters, has lent his weight to President Hamid Karzai.

Speaking on behalf of Jalali, his brother Abdul Salam Jalali told a gathering in Kabul on Monday they had held a meeting with Karzai and after studying his manifesto, decided to support him.

"Due to the multiplicity of candidates in the presidential race, Ali Ahmad Jalali did not jump into the fray," his brother added.

He claimed millions of people supported the ex-interior minister's policies and hailed his decision to back the incumbent president. "Karzai's polices are workable and that is why we back him," argued Abdul Salam Jalali.

Five Presidential Candidates, including Arsala, retire in favour of Karzai

Pajhwok

KABUL - Hours before the electioneering ended, Hedayat Amin Arsala Monday pulled out of the battle for presidency in support of President Hamid Karzai.

The Presidential Palace said the ex-finance minister had a meeting with President Karzai this evening before announcing his withdrawal from the contest, slated for Thursday.

Arsala urged his supporters to vote for the incumbent president in the election featuring more than 30 candidates.

On the occasion, Karzai thanked his former minister and hoped his decision would a go a long way in promoting Afghanistan's reconstruction and development.

"In an attempt to bring stability and progress to the war-devastated country, I decided to contest the polls. But after noting that our objectives are the same, I opted for retiring in favour of President Karzai," Arsala remarked.

Earlier in the day, four contenders pulled out of the race and put their weight behind President Hamid Karzai. The candidates including Hakim Torsan, Muhammad Yasin Safi, Dr. Muhammad Naseer Anis and Shah Mahmood Popal announced their support to Karzai hours before the election campaign ended at midnight.

Asia Times
By M K Bhadrakumar

The Taliban's activities are hogging the headlines, as they spill over to the northern and western provinces of Afghanistan. The murder of the police chief of Dasht-e-Archi district in the northern Kunduz province on Wednesday following the Taliban overrunning the district and storming his headquarters in the town center comes as an eye-opener. Sizeable numbers of "foreign fighters" have moved northward with the intent of reaching the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan.

The alienation of the Pashtun settlements in the north, the split between the Uzbekis and the Tajiks in the Amu Darya region and the steady fragmentation of Rashid Dostum's Jumbish are factors that help the Taliban. All in all, therefore, the presidential election in Afghanistan on August 20 has assumed immense significance for the geopolitics of the region.

AFP
By Lynne O'Donnell

KABUL – Riahana and Farida Kawoon grew up under the shadow of the Taliban, schooled at home in constant fear of being caught and beaten for defying the severe restrictions placed on Afghan women.

This week, both young women will vote in their country's second presidential election, 18-year-old Farida for the first time casting a vote for what she says is a stake in Afghanistan's future.

"There is a big difference between my mother's generation and mine," said the first-year student at Kabul Business Administration University.

"I will vote and was very happy to be able to register as a voter. I want to participate in the election and have a say in the fate of my country and select a candidate who has the best interests of the country at heart."

In the eight years since the Taliban regime was toppled in a US-led invasion -- punishment for harbouring Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington -- millions of Afghan women have registered to vote.

REUTERS

FAIZABAD - Afghanistan’s mountainous north ought to be the heartland of support for opposition presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah, scion of the mainly ethnic-Tajik militia movement that long held sway here.

Nevertheless, security guard Mohibullah says he would rather keep President Hamid Karzai in power for five more years.

‘There’s been war for 30 years in Afghanistan, now there’s peace, electricity and we’re using the river properly,’ he said. ‘I’m voting for Karzai.’

The latest opinion poll suggests Karzai will place first in the Aug 20 presidential election, but not by enough to avoid a run-off, beating Abdullah 44 percent to 26.

Abdullah hopes to build a coalition strong enough to beat Karzai in a second round in October, but a visit to Badakhshan, the remote northern corner of the country in the high Hindu Kush mountains, shows the scale of the task he faces.

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