KABUL – Afghan President Hamid Karzai leads the country’s presidential race, but not by enough to win an outright majority on August 20th and to avoid a second round, a new poll released yesterday shows.
The poll, by the US-funded International Republican Institute, showed Mr Karzai winning 44 per cent of the vote, with his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, on 26 per cent. With less than a week to go, the two main candidates are criss-crossing the country by helicopter and jet. Mr Karzai flew to the western city of Herat yesterday, while Mr Abdullah was in the mountain province of Dai Kundi.
Western diplomats have said they are surprised by the closeness of the race, although Mr Karzai remains the front-runner to remain in power, if not with a first round victory then by surviving a second-round run-off six weeks later.
The election is a test for Barack Obama’s strategy of rushing thousands of extra troops to Afghanistan to tip the balance in an eight-year-old war that was not being won. Some 30,000 extra US troops have already arrived this year, bringing the total western force above 100,000 for the first time, including 62,000 Americans.
The overall US and Nato commander, Gen Stanley McChrystal, is due to release an assessment shortly after the election, which could be followed by a request for more troops.
The new US troops and British forces have launched huge offensives in the south to reclaim Taliban-held territory, taking unprecedented casualties. More western troops have died in Afghanistan since March than in the entire period from 2001-2004.
Despite the worsening war and a widespread view that the government is corrupt and ineffective, Mr Karzai remains personally quite popular. In the poll, 81 per cent had a favourable view of him and only 17 per cent had an unfavourable view. The poll showed Abdullah is also well liked, with a 71 per cent favourable rating.
A master coalition-builder, Mr Karzai has accumulated the endorsements of many powerful regional chieftains, to the alarm of western diplomats worried about former warlords carving up power after the election. – (Reuters)