12 Aug 2009 10:41:36 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Fixes typos)
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, August 12 (Reuters) - Afghanistan holds presidential and provincial elections on Aug. 20, the second since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, amid mounting attacks from the insurgents.
There are 35 candidates, among them two women, challenging incumbent Hamid Karzai, who must win over 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off against a second-placed candidate.
A recent poll by the Washington-based firm Glevum Associates showed Karzai winning 45 percent, compared with 25 percent for former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
Following are brief profiles of some of the leading candidates: * Hamid Karzai, leader of Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster and the man who won the country's first presidential poll in 2004:
The 51-year-old Karzai is an ethnic Pashtun from the same tribe as the former Afghan royal family. He received a masters degree in Political Science in India in 1983 and then joined a small pro-monarchist faction of the anti-Soviet mujahideen in Pakistan.
He served as deputy foreign minister after the fall of the Soviet-backed government in Kabul in 1992.
At first supporting the Taliban, Karzai later worked from Pakistan to overthrow the austere Islamists. He returned to Afghanistan in late 2001 when he was appointed president of the country's interim government in a U.N. sponsored deal in Germany.
Endemic government corruption, slow development and civilian casualties caused by foreign forces and his alliance with former military leaders, have eroded his public support. Karzai says he is running again to complete "a job" and has termed talks with the insurgents as his top priority.
* Dr. Ramazan Bashardost, member of parliament and planning minister, 2004 to 2005:
Regarded as ascetic, the 43-year-old Bashardost is an ethnic Hazara who spent more than 20 years in France, where he received masters degrees in Law, Diplomacy and Political Science and a PhD in Law.
Openly criticising the government and accusing ministers of corruption, Bashardost has modelled himself as a man of the people. While briefly serving as planning minister, Bashardost was critical of the role of aid agencies in Afghanistan and later resigned under government and foreign pressure.
Bashardost runs his campaign from a tent opposite parliament and has vowed to not allow foreign troops to stay in Afghanistan if elected.
* Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institute and finance minister, 2002-2004.
The 59-year-old Ahmadzai, an ethnic Pashtun, received a PhD in Anthropology from Columbia University. Ahmadzai has spent more than two decades outside Afghanistan where he worked at different universities and the World Bank.
In 2002, he served as special adviser to the United Nations and later as finance minister under Karzai. In 2005, Ahmadzai founded the Institute of State Effectiveness in the United States aimed at promoting effective government. Ahmadzai used to live in the United States.
* Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Afghan foreign minister, 2001-2006:
The 48-year-old Abdullah has a medical degree from Kabul University and worked as an ophthalmologist until 1985. A year later he joined the Panjshir Resistance Front against the Soviets and served as an adviser to the late Ahmad Shah Masood.
Abdullah was foreign minister of the Northern Alliance from 1998 onwards, and after Massood's assassination in 2001, became a dominant figure in the alliance that helped U.S. forces in toppling the Taliban.
He was appointed foreign minister under Karzai's interim government, a position he held until Karzai sacked him abruptely in 2006. He is seen as a prominent leader of the northern ethnic Tajiks, but is half Pashtun.
Abdullah is pushing for establishment of post of premiership and for the election of governors and mayors.
* Mullah Abdul Salaam Rocketi, a former Taliban commander who now sits in the parliament. He earned the nickname of rocketi for his certain ability in firing rocket-propelled grenades and stinger missiles during the war against the Soviet occupation.
An ethnic Pashtun and aged 51, Rocketi is seen as strong negotiator and was among a group of former Taliban members who went to Saudi Arabia last year to meet King Abdullah as part of Karzai's effort to persuade the Taliban for peace talks.
* Hedayat Amin Arsala is an economist and a prominent Afghan politician. He was the first Afghan to join the World Bank and served there for 18 years.
He served as foreign minister for two years in the early 1990s when he was Karzai's boss. The 67 years-old Arsala who is also a Pashtun, was senior minister until recent months.
* Forozan Fana, 40, is one of only two female candidates and a surgeon who has spent some years in self-imposed exile in Europe. Her husband was a minister under Karzai's government until being assassinated in 2002 at Kabul airport.
Fana says she wants to hold talks with some Taliban.
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