Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s cousin Hashmat Karzai is reportedly planning to stop presidential runner Dr. Zalmai Rasoul from winning the upcoming presidential election.
Hashmat Karzai has warned that more people would join the Taliban, strengthening the insurgency as foreign troops pull out, if Rasoul was elected president.
Hashmat has said he was gathering tribal leaders from three southern provinces to back Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, the former World Bank official, who is popular with young people and women.
“Once the tribes or the elders decide (to support Ghani), it would make a big impact on the election,” Hashmat told Reuters.
He also criticized the current leaders for being involved in corruption and injustice and said that the issue was driving disenchanted citizens into the arms of the Taliban.
In the meantime, some Afghans fear that a loss in the vote for Zalmai Rassoul, a candidate close to President Hamid Karzai, could push Kandahar’s powerful Pashtun tribes into rejecting rule from Kabul.
There are also concerns regarding the repeat of corruption that marred the presidential vote in 2009, when about 40 percent of votes cast in Kandahar were suspected to be fraudulent.
Abdul Hadi, chief of Kandahar’s Independent Electoral Commission told Reuters, “What was happening before will happen on the same scale.”
Hashmat Karzai has warned that more people would join the Taliban, strengthening the insurgency as foreign troops pull out, if Rasoul was elected president.
Hashmat has said he was gathering tribal leaders from three southern provinces to back Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, the former World Bank official, who is popular with young people and women.
“Once the tribes or the elders decide (to support Ghani), it would make a big impact on the election,” Hashmat told Reuters.
He also criticized the current leaders for being involved in corruption and injustice and said that the issue was driving disenchanted citizens into the arms of the Taliban.
In the meantime, some Afghans fear that a loss in the vote for Zalmai Rassoul, a candidate close to President Hamid Karzai, could push Kandahar’s powerful Pashtun tribes into rejecting rule from Kabul.
There are also concerns regarding the repeat of corruption that marred the presidential vote in 2009, when about 40 percent of votes cast in Kandahar were suspected to be fraudulent.
Abdul Hadi, chief of Kandahar’s Independent Electoral Commission told Reuters, “What was happening before will happen on the same scale.”





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