By NNN-Agencies,
Kabul : As election campaign formally began in the post-Taliban Afghanistan on Tuesday, an arch rival to President Hamid Karzai’s administration Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai called on Afghans to bring change through voting.
“My prime objective is to oust this corrupt administration through voting and provide shelter and job opportunities for 1 million people if people mandate me,” Ahmadzai told a public meeting attended by some 1,000 of his supporters here in the Afghan capital.
Election campaign formally began on Tuesday and would be closed down on Aug 17 just 48 hours before beginning of voting.
Ahmadzai, who served as finance minister in President Hamid Karzai’s administration years ago, described the present administration as a corrupt one, calling on Afghans to utterly reject Karzai during election set for August 20.
The sitting president Hamid Karzai is among 41 candidates on the run for the presidential poll held on Aug 20 amid tight security.
Campaigning for Afghanistan’s second-ever presidential elections kicked off with hundreds of posters hoisted in the capital and candidates setting out to win over voters new to democracy.
By contrast, the southern city of Kandahar — in the heartland of a Taliban insurgency that has reached record levels and threatens the August 20 poll — remained bare of posters and election spirit, an AFP reporter said.
In Kabul, a 30-vehicle convoy decorated with posters of deputy parliamentary speaker Mirwais Yasini held up the traffic with loudspeakers blaring out the qualities of the candidate, one of 41 in the running.
Supporters of former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah met in the city to hand out posters and banners of their candidate, who was expected to host his first rally on Thursday.
With Karzai on a state visit to Russia, his campaign office — which includes at least two former ministers — called in media to introduce themselves.
The head of the campaign, former provincial governor Din Mohammad, dismissed suggestions that Karzai’s popularity had flagged and claimed “no one can deny that Karzai is ahead of all.”
Karzai won the 2004 election with 55.4 percent and is tipped by observers to have a good chance at the August ballot despite his failure to rein in corruption or the Taliban in his nearly eight years on the job.
Independent Election Commission official Daud Ali Najafi told reporters that the president had agreed to halt any government appointments in case they could benefit his campaign.
“Other restrictions are, for example, that a candidate cannot use any government facilities during their campaign even if it is the president or anyone else,” Najafi said at a briefing to announce the start of campaigning.
Election organisers have meanwhile complained that in the field of 41, which includes two women, are several people who should not be on the list as they do not have the qualifications or profile to stand for office.
UN representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, called for candidates to “campaign with dignity and fairness.”
Afghanistan’s military allies are meanwhile deploying thousands of troops amid fears that surging violence could keep voters away from the polls and cast doubt on their credibility.
Two out of more than 3,200 candidates for provincial council elections, also due on Aug 20, have been killed in recent weeks, with one of the murders blamed on the Taliban.
Militant violence is rising and public anger reverberates against Karzai’s government and U.S. troops for accidental civilian killings in military operations. Economic issues will be crucial too. Poverty remains widespread and corruption is rife.
Key to Karzai’s success could be his ability to again win the support of his fellow Pashtun tribespeople in the south and east of the country — the largest ethnic group in this diverse nation of about 30 million people.
The Afghan government, the U.N. and the U.S. and NATO militaries are working to provide enough security so Afghans from the snowcapped mountains in the north to the unending deserts in the south may cast votes. Thousands of new troops are pouring in to help protect the balloting.
The Pashtun-based Taliban have urged Afghans not to vote and have launched minor and scattered attacks on voting registration centers. But Taliban leaders have not said whether they will attempt a large-scale disruption of the election.