Anand Gopal

By Matthew Rosenberg, Anand Gopal and Yochi Dreazen

KABUL — Amid dozens of election-day Taliban attacks that claimed 26 lives, Afghans voted for president Thursday — but reports of low turnout and fraud made it unclear whether bombs or ballots would ultimately emerge the day’s victor.
Counting Ballots

Taliban militants had stepped up attacks for a week and threatened to target polling places with suicide squads to disrupt the vote and force voters to stay home. In the end they managed 73 attacks across the nation amid massive security efforts. The dead included a U.S. soldier and a British soldier.

U.S. and Afghan officials portrayed the day as positive because international troops were never called in to maintain security and there were no major attacks; many of the incidents caused little harm. Still, the violence was expected to result in voter turnout clearly below the 70% registered in the last election five years ago.

Election officials in a number of provinces reported turnout only a fraction that high, and in Taliban strongholds voters reported many polling stations were shuttered. “Everything is closed,” said lawmaker Roshanak Wardak by telephone from the southern province of Wardak. “Right now, I am hiding in my house. There are rockets and explosions outside.”
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KABUL — Slipping by his rivals with a platform of security and reconstruction that resonated with war-weary voters, a new president of Afghanistan was elected this week: the baby-faced, 20-year-old Munir Farahmand.

Who?

That, at least, is how things unfolded on “The Candidate,” a reality TV show that pits young Afghans against each other in a mock election.

Fans of the show watched over the last two and a half months as the young, make-believe candidates developed policies and campaigned. Viewers placed votes by sending text messages from their cell phones.

Afghanistan’s real elections, scheduled to be held on Aug. 20, have been marred by insurgent violence, privilege-peddling and questions over candidates’ associations with warlords.

Leading candidates, including incumbent Hamid Karzai, have avoided developing detailed platforms. They instead rely on patronage and tribal and political networks to win support.

But viewers of “The Candidate” have been treated to an entirely different experience. Young contestants have carefully cultivated policy proposals to curry favor with viewers. The winner got a laptop and office supplies to encourage him to set up a campaign office and get involved in politics in the real world.

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Commission chief struggles to keep the process honest; ‘You do the best given the circumstances.’

KABUL — Afghanistan’s presidential election next week is proving to be a complicated exercise in democracy. A raging insurgency threatens to close voting centers. Some of the 38 candidates maintain ties to armed militias. Others have threatened violence if they lose. And reports of widespread fraud endanger the poll’s credibility.

It is Grant Kippen’s job to keep the process honest. Mr. Kippen heads the Electoral Complaints Commission, an independent body given the task of receiving complaints about candidates, auditing the process for fraud, and, when necessary, imposing sanctions on violators to try to ensure the vote is as credible as possible.

“It’s a challenge, an enormous challenge,” Mr. Kippen says. “We expect thousands of complaints and allegations by Election Day. You do your best given the circumstances.”

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By Anand Gopal and Yochi Dreazen

KABUL — The Afghan and U.S. governments have launched a new effort to enlist tribal fighters from many of the country’s most violent provinces in the war against the Taliban, hoping that a tactic first used in Iraq can help turn the tide here as well.

Thousands of armed tribal fighters from 18 Afghan provinces will initially be hired to provide security for elections on Aug. 20, officials from both countries said. If the security is effective, Afghan officials say they will try to give the tribesmen permanent jobs protecting their villages and neighborhoods.

The tribal initiative is being run by a new branch of the Afghan government called the Independent Directorate for the Protection of Highways and Public Property. In coming days, officials from the agency will ask tribal shuras, or councils, in participating provinces to organize armed militias to guard polling places, roads and public gathering spaces.

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The unpopular Afghan President’s talent for deal-making and conciliation are expected to pave way for another 5-year term.

By Matthew Rosenberg and Anand Gopal

KABUL — When the U.S. and its allies first anointed Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan’s president nearly eight years ago, he was seen at home and abroad as an adept politician uniquely suited to forge compromises among the country’s warring factions.

As Afghanistan has deteriorated, so has Mr. Karzai’s reputation. The same traits that once earned him praise are now criticized as signs of a mercurial and vacillating leader. He publicly denounces the U.S. presence. He is widely blamed for all that ails Afghanistan: the rampant corruption, the flourishing opium trade, the Taliban’s resurgence. And, until he began campaigning for re-election when the nation goes to the polls Aug. 20, he rarely ventured beyond the confines of his palace. At a rally on Friday he made only a brief appearance, speaking for about six minutes.

Yet the deeply unpopular Mr. Karzai, 51 years old, is heavily favored to win another five-year term. The reason, according to allies, foes and diplomats: Despite his many shortcomings, Mr. Karzai has become a passive strongman, a leader whose deal-making touch and conciliatory instincts have allowed him to sideline rivals or turn them into allies. That is expected to translate into victory at the polls, in a system in which voters tend to follow their traditional and ethnic leaders.

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by Peter Wonacott and Anand Gopal

KABUL — Afghanistan is expected to put its rough-edged new democracy on display in a televised debate between candidates vying to lead one of the world’s poorest, most turbulent countries.

But only three of the 41 presidential candidates were asked to appear for the event Thursday evening, and only one looked certain to show up, reflecting the disarray of a nascent system that still lacks political parties and general ground rules for debates.

On Wednesday evening, a spokesman for the heavily favored incumbent, President Hamid Karzai, said the president wouldn’t participate because he didn’t have enough notice and more candidates weren’t invited.

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Villagers attacked the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, a rare instance of locals turning on insurgents after being promised aid money and security by the government.

Friday’s confrontation was welcome news for Afghan and U.S. authorities, in what is shaping up to be one of the bloodiest months for the U.S-led coalition since the start of the war.

Tribesmen in Nangarhar, a province in the east, broke ties with the Taliban after being promised development money and security at a pair of meetings with Afghan officials in recent months, said tribal elders and a spokesman for the provincial government, Ahmad Zia Abdulzai.

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In Wardak province, the counterinsurgency model has been difficult to implement, though US forces have already seen some success in the first phase of the effort.

Jaghatu, Afghanistan - Part 2 of a two-part series.

As the US sends more troops to Afghanistan to try to reverse the growing violence, they are relying on the “clear, hold, build” model of counterinsurgency. The US hopes a surge of soldiers will help them clear areas of Taliban insurgents, maintain a lasting presence in those areas to keep militants from returning, and then bring development to attract popular support.

But soldiers in Wardak Province say that the model has been difficult to implement in here. In particular, they say they are caught in a vicious circle: To win over the locals, the troops must bring development, security, and economic prospects. To do this, they have to diminish the presence of the insurgency. But this, in turn, requires that the troops win support of the population.

US forces have already made some progress in the first phase of the strategy. The stretch of the Kabul-Kandahar highway that runs through Wardak, once a magnet for insurgents, has been free of Taliban checkpoints for months. The guerrilla presence along the route had gotten so bad that fuel convoys suffered almost daily attacks.

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As forces of the 10th Mountain Division poured into Wardak Province to combat the Taliban, they’ve also had to battle a cool reception.

Tangi Valley, Afghanistan - Part one of a two-part series.

When the soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division penetrated the insurgent-ridden Tangi Valley in the heart of Wardak Province, they braved rockets and roadside bombs. They succeeded in erecting a small outpost overlooking the lush, fertile dale in what is one of the most dangerous areas in the province.

Then they set about their main task: winning over the locals. They called a shura, or council, with the local elders here, to introduce themselves and take requests from the villagers.

“But to be honest, they didn’t want us here,” recalls 1st Lt. Christopher Wallgren, who commands the company of soldiers stationed in the Tangi, in eastern Afghanistan. “They all just asked us to leave. They didn’t want us to interfere with their lives.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Haqqani Network, born of the Russian war and nurtured by the CIA, is behind many of the spectacular insurgent assaults in Afghanistan.

Gardez, AFGHANISTAN - Sitting in an open field, three Taliban-allied insurgents carefully pore over a map of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

“This is where we will be staying,” one says, pointing.

In the next scene from this insurgent propaganda video, one fighter shows the others a video of an empty room with a window. “You will shoot at Karzai from this window,” he explains to the others. “We have people on the inside who will help you.”

The assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai, which took place in April 2008 during a military parade, nearly succeeded. The president escaped, but three people died.

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