Warlord politics heats Afghan vote
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President Karzai's rival gains ground by appealing to Afghanistan's former anti-Soviet resistance fighters.
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Given how little-known most of his 15 rivals are, the election in Afghanistan will largely be a referendum on President Hamid Karzai.
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Hamid Karzai is on course to retain the presidency in Afghanistan with more than half the votes counted in the country&#39;s first poll.
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SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan  - Afghanistan's election  bandwagon creaked into motion on Tuesday with a regional  strongman attracting the biggest gathering of the campaign.
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A lieutenant of powerful northern warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostam pledged to back incumbent Hamid Karzai in the upcoming presidential vote and said 149 other military commanders would join him.
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Few women will vote in Afghanistan's election because of threats by warlords, Human Rights Watch says.
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Afghans voted Saturday in a historic poll  that aimed to give the mountainous and impoverished Islamic  nation its first elected president and perhaps end over a  quarter-century of war.
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President Hamid Karzai is close to winning the Afghan presidential poll, with nearly 60% of the votes and more than half the ballots counted.
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Afghans have one day left to make up  their minds about who to vote for as their country's first  elected president even though threats of violent reprisals by  Taliban militants may deter some from casting their ballots.
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Vote counting started yesterday in Afghanistan&#39;s landmark election, widely expected to install Hamid Karzai, the US-backed interim leader, as the country&#39;s first popularly chosen president.
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai&#39;s main opponent in a landmark election took center stage on Saturday, while the incumbent, almost invisible during the campaign amid security
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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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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 worst-kept secret in the village of Dehnow is that everyone is voting for Hamid Karzai. Of course, when asked who they want to win yesterday&#39;s elections for the president of Afghanistan
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KABUL: Afghans vote Saturday in the first direct presidential elections in their history, under the threat of violence from anti-US militants and Osama bin Laden&#39;s terror network.
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SHIBERGHAN, Afghanistan  - Afghanistan's election  bandwagon creaked into motion on Tuesday with a leading  candidate drawing the biggest crowd of the campaign so far.
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- Elections heralded as the dawn of democracy in war-ravaged Afghanistan will be hijacked by warlords able to intimidate voters and candidates to entrench their own power, a leading rights group warned today.