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Article: Incumbent on him; Afghanistan's presidential election.(Hamid Karzai)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 15, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Hamid Karzai seems poised for a victory few will cheer
KICKING up dust in Kabul's main stadium, to a tinny background noise of Persian poetry and Muslim prayer, 10,000 Afghans gathered on August 7th for a rare glimpse of their president, Hamid Karzai. It was brief, too. Mr Karzai, wearing the motley tribal garb that made him, in more hopeful times, a symbol of national unity in a war-shattered land, arrived in a scrimmage of foreign photographers, spoke for ten minutes and then was bundled away.
As almost his first campaign appearance in Kabul, ahead of presidential and provincial elections due on August 20th, this was underwhelming. The crowd was mostly ...