at a campaign stop in Ghazni, outside Kabul.
northeastern Afghanistan. The election is on Saturday; Wednesday,
a vice presidential candidate survived a bomb attack in the northeast.
Posted on 10/07/2004 6:09:19 AM PDT by OESY
More than 10 million Afghans will... cast ballots to choose their president on Saturday, in the first direct election for head of state in the nation's 5,000-year history....
After the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan faced enormous challenges, the lack of a legitimate political system, the existence of warlords with private militias, the absence of effective national institutions -- and desperate poverty. Though none of these problems has been fully overcome, significant progress is now being made against all.
Step by step, the Afghans are rebuilding an effective state and political system. At last year's Constitutional Loya Jirga (or political assembly), they approved the most progressive constitution not only in Afghan history, but also in the Islamic world. At the loya jirga, all political groups accepted a set of rules for deciding who governs, as well as on the limits of state power. And all ethnic groups -- Pushtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and others -- are fully vested in the constitutional process to elect the president, the parliament, and provincial and local councils.
Afghans, with the support of the international community, are breaking the back of warlordism. Customs revenues increasingly flow to the national government, rather than to the pockets of regional strongmen. President Hamid Karzai has appointed new governors and police chiefs in most of the country's provinces. He has removed leaders with private militias from positions of military command or transferred them away from the regions in which their personal networks and bases of power were entrenched....
Afghans... say that life is immeasurably better than under the Taliban, and that they are profoundly grateful for the help received from the United States and the rest of the world. However, we all know that... we must sustain the positive momentum developed to date for at least five years....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Nice of the Dems to help out with the ballot boxes,,,did they stuff them already too?
I think Afghanistan is actually going to be the first beacon in the area,,and Iraq is not far behind,,much to the Dims dismay.
Wow!!!!!!! Liberty on the march!! Let freedom ring!!! Sure beats how it used to be: a place where the Taliban killed songbirds because of their singing.
With Afghanistan having free elections and Iraq next, it looks like Bushs predictions will come to pass re: other countries want free elections. I was happily surprised to hear about demonstrations for free elections in Iran. The world is changing!
I hope the WSJ is right, but democracy and Mohammedanism don't mix, Turkey and Indonesia notwithstanding.
A "democratically elected" form of government is a much needed improvement over their previous form of "Marauding Horde" form of government......
I'd prefer they used elephants to carry the boxes, but the thought of a society that goes so far as to carry ballot boxes on an animal just so folks can vote is absolutely awesome.
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