Afghans prepare for first direct election
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Millions of Afghans are set to go to the polls Saturday 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 have braved threats of Taliban attacks to begin voting in a historic presidential election that they hope will mark the beginning of the end to a quarter century of conflict.
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Counting began in Afghanistan's first  direct presidential election Thursday, five days after the poll  took place, an official for the Afghan-U.N. Joint Electoral  Management Body said.
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Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai promised Afghans greater security when they go to vote in the country's first ever democratic election during an independence day speech on Wednesday.
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KABUL, Afghanistan Oct. 8, 2004 - In advance of Afghanistan&#39;s first-ever direct presidential election, Muslim clerics urged Friday worshippers to embrace democracy, election workers scurried to ready voting
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Afghanistan holds a presidential election on Saturday, the first time in its history that Afghans will directly choose a leader. Here is a chronology of the main events in Afghanistan
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Afghanistan has held its first direct national elections to vote for a new president. Interim President Hamid Karzai is being challenged by 15 other candidates.
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Afghanistan&#39;s historic presidential election began today, with people across this ethnically diverse land casting the first ballots in an improbable experiment with democracy
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Afghanistan will hold its first presidential election in decades on October 9th. Among the 18 candidates vying for office is incumbent President Hamid Karzai, a respected but sometimes controversial figure
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Campaigning for Afghanistan&#39;s first direct presidential election began Tuesday, a crucial step in the nation&#39;s troubled transition to democracy after the fall of the Taliban nearly three years ago.
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KABUL : Hamid Karzai was to be sworn in as Afghanistan&#39;s first democratically elected president under watertight security after remnants of the ousted Taliban regime threatened to disrupt the ceremony.
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KABUL (Afghanistan) - Polling has started in Afghanistan&#39;s first-ever direct presidential election on Saturday, with interim leader Hamid Karzai widely favoured against more than a dozen rivals while 100,000 troops were on high alert for expected violence
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KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's first-ever direct presidential election began Saturday, with people across this ethnically diverse land casting the first ballots in an improbable experiment with democracy.    After 25 years of near constant war - and under a Taliban threat of ruinous violence - voters descended on bombed-out schools, blue-domed mosques, and bullet-pocked hospitals to choose their leader for the first time in their history...
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Hamid Karzai has been sworn in as Afghanistan&#39;s first popularly elected president amid tight security. There had been fears that supporters of the previous Taliban ruling regime would attempt to sabotage the ceremony in Kabul.
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Interim leader Hamid Karzai appeared set to become Afghanistan&#39;s first directly elected leader after preliminary results Sunday showed he had won a majority in landmark presidential elections.
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Afghanistan&#39;s interim President Hamid Karzai says he hopes the country&#39;s first direct presidential election on October 9 will be decided in the first round.
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The official month-long campaign for Afghanistan&#39;s first-ever direct presidential election since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban, has opened.