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| Afghanistan |
| Karzai will not seek third term |
| 2011-08-12 |
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... , who has led Afghanistan for nearly a decade, said Thursday he would not seek a third term in office at an election due to coincide with the end of NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... combat operations in 2014. Some political opponents had feared that Karzai, who has been Afghanistan's only leader since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban, may amend the constitution in order to stay in power. "The constitution of Afghanistan does not allow anyone to run for the presidency for more than two terms," the president's office quoted Karzai as telling a group of parliamentarians. He "will not try to run for the presidency for the third time", it said, adding that he was making the announcement in response to "rumours". With three years to go before Afghanistan's next presidential election, the announcement took many analysts in Kabul by surprise. On Wednesday, Karzai took a step towards resolving a long-running row over vote-rigging in last September's parliamentary polls by handing authority for adjudicating the issue to the Independent Election Commission. But it was not immediately clear whether the two moves were connected. Karzai has also suffered the loss of a number of key allies in recent months in the midst of a raging Taliban insurgency. The president, whose initially warm ties with the West have descended into acrimony in recent years, was sworn in as interim leader of Afghanistan in December 2001, shortly after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban. In 2004, he won the country's first direct presidential ballot with 55.4 percent of the vote. But his re-election in 2009 was mired in allegations of corruption, in which challenger Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... abandoned a second-round run-off and Sherlocks threw out a third of Karzai's original votes because of fraud. Western diplomats say this was a key factor in deteriorating relations between Karzai and foreign powers, notably the United States. A number of key Karzai allies have been assassinated in recent months, notably his powerful brother Ahmed Wali Karzai and the mayor of the southern city of Kandahar, who were both killed in July. Afghan analyst Waheed Mujda said he thought the move was partly motivated by Karzai's diminishing power base. "I believe that even until one year ago, the president had the intention to somehow continue his power, if not as president then as a regional power holder in his birthplace in the south," Mujda said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 He'll be lucky to survive his second term.... |
| Posted by: Barbara 2011-08-12 14:56 |
| #2 Guess he has to concentrate on the family opium crops. |
| Posted by: Thumper and Tenille2812 2011-08-12 09:33 |
| #1 Can he come back to Baltimore ? Get back into the restaurant business? A humble man who now will only need a platoon of bodyguards even if he goes to Disneyland. But then its that kind of game. When the money runs out get your roller skates. |
| Posted by: de Medici 2011-08-12 08:57 |