Turnout appears low as Afghans vote for President

Taliban threats appeared to have dampened voter turnout in the south on Thursday as Afghans chose the next president for their deeply troubled country. Insurgents launched scattered rocket, suicide and bomb attacks that closed some polling sites.

Low turnout in the south would harm President Hamid Karzai’s re-election chances and boost the standing of his top challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Turnout in the north appeared to be high, a good sign for Abdullah.

International officials have predicted an imperfect election -- Afghanistan’s second -- over direct presidential vote -- but expressed hope that Afghans would accept it as legitimate, a key component of President Barack Obama’s war strategy. Taliban militants, though, pledged to disrupt the vote and circulated threats that those who cast ballots will be punished.

A voting official in Kandahar, the south’s largest city and the Taliban’s spiritual birthplace, said voting appeared to be 40 percent lower than during the country’s 2004 presidential election. The official asked not to be identified because he wasn’t authorised to release turnout figures. Low turnouts were reported in Kabul compared with longer lines seen in the 2004 vote.

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Presidential candidate Ramazan Bashardost, who had 10 percent support in pre-election polls, said he washed off the supposedly indelible ink and called on authorities to “immediately stop this election.”

“This is not an election, this is a comedy,” Mr. Bashardost said.

<snip>http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article6234.ece?homepage=true

(everywhere but here, apparently) and Karzai is taking that murderer Dostum with him everywhere. I hope not too many people die over this travesty.

military could withdraw, stop by Iraq, pick up our guys and gals there and come home. NOTHING is going to change in that part of the world. It has always been that way and will continue to be.