(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – This month’s presidential election in Afghanistan may require a second round, according to a poll by the International Republican Institute. 44 per cent of respondents would vote for incumbent Hamid Karzai in the ballot.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – This month’s presidential election in Afghanistan may require a second round, according to a poll by the International Republican Institute. 44 per cent of respondents would vote for incumbent Hamid Karzai in the ballot.
Independent candidate and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah is second with 26 per cent, followed by former planning minister Ramazan Bashardost with 10 per cent, and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai with six per cent.
Afghanistan has been the main battleground in the war on terrorism. The conflict began in October 2001, after the Taliban regime refused to hand over Osama bin Laden without evidence of his participation in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people.
The United States-led Operation Enduring Freedom and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) currently command the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.
According to an account by the Associated Press, more than 2,310 insurgents have been killed in Afghanistan in 2009 alone.
Karzai has been Afghanistan’s president since November 2004, when he won the first-ever presidential election in the country with 55.4 per cent of all cast ballots. Before that, he headed an interim government for two years.
Yesterday, Abdullah suggested that the process may not be fair, saying, "If there is no fraud in the election, it is clear for the nation who the winner will be and who the next president will be—if they don’t steal your votes."
The presidential election is scheduled for Aug. 20. If no candidate garners more than 50 per cent of the vote in the first round, a run-off featuring the top two vote-getters must take place at a later date.
Polling Data
If the election for president were being held today and you had to decide right now, could you please point to the candidate [ON LIST] for whom you would vote for president?
|
Hamid Karzai |
44% |
|
Abdullah Abdullah |
26% |
|
Ramazan Bashardost |
10% |
|
Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai |
6% |
|
Other / Not sure |
14% |
Source: International Republican Institute
Methodology: Interviews with 2,400 Afghan adults, conducted from Jul. 16 to Jul. 26, 2009. Margin of error is 2.0 per cent.
