Afghans Want Real Election After Low-Key Buildup
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MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan  - Before Shugofa  Beheshti decides who to vote for in Afghanistan's Oct. 9  presidential election, she wants to hear what the candidates  have to say.
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Afghans have begun heading to the polls in the country&#39;s first direct democratic election, almost three years after the hard-line Taliban regime was ousted by a US-led military campaign.
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Voting has begun in Afghanistan for the first direct presidential election in the country's history.
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Afghanistan&#39;s first presidential election is just over a week away, but campaigning and enthusiasm have been muted for an event described by President Bush as one of his major achievements.
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The power of Afghan armed factions means elections there will go ahead in an environment of fear and repression, US-based Human Rights Watch says.
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At last the much-discussed first-everAfghan presidential elections in the post-Taliban nation were held Saturday amid hopes and fears as the anti-government militias fired several
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With voting concluded, Afghans started the process of counting the ballots cast in the nation&#39;s first-ever presidential election -- one marred by opposition protests.
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Afghans are expected to democratically elect their president for the first time on 9 October. The candidates are a mix of old and new faces, representing an array of ethnic and regional interests.
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The campaign for Afghanistan's first  direct presidential election opened to little fanfare on  Tuesday, but the Taliban -- ousted in 2001 in a U.S.-led  invasion -- vowed again to disrupt the Oct. 9 poll.
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SHAHBET, Afghanistan  - Plans for Afghanistan's  first democratic election in October mean little to Ismail Khan  as he strides across a hill top, satellite phone in hand,  flanked by commanders and a battle tank at his back.
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If only the United States would show as much faith in Afghanistan as the people who voted in that country&#39;s first presidential election.
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Despite threats from the Taliban to disrupt the upcoming elections in Afghanistan, campaigns for the first post-Taliban elections began today.
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The election for president in Afghanistan may have brought us one small step closer to worldwide democracy. At least the people there left no doubt that they wanted to vote.
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KABUL : Afghanistan&#39;s first ever national election was in crisis as opposition candidates demanded fresh polls, charging widespread fraud, after eager voters turned out in force for a peaceful vote hoping for an end to decades of conflict.
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Tens of thousands of people gathered in a northern Afghan town on Tuesday to hear General Abdul Rashid Dostum launch his bid for the presidency, as a slow election campaign began to gather pace.
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- In schools and mosques, wearing suits and burkas, Afghans voted yesterday in the first presidential election, and did not suffer the widespread violence that officials had feared. But the ballot was thrown into doubt when candidates challenging interim President Hamid Karzai called the results invalid after many stations used the wrong ink to mark voters' thumbs.
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History is being made in Afghanistan, as the country takes part in its first-ever presidential election. But while most Afghans are enthusiastic, the candidates challenging interim President Hamid Karzai claim