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Afghan leader says open to poll debates but not yet
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:30am EDT
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By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has not ruled out debating opposition candidates before next month's presidential election but pulled out of a televised debate on Thursday because too few were involved, his office said.
Karzai's campaign office rejected accusations the president, a clear leader in opinion surveys, was afraid to debate his former cabinet ministers Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, the only two candidates seen as capable of challenging him.
It said Karzai was in favor of a debate but rejected taking part on Thursday because he said it was not fair to ignore the other 37 candidates and that all media outlets should be allowed to cover the event.
Thursday's two-hour debate, the first of the campaign, is due to air on the privately owned Tolo television station.
But following Karzai's withdrawal Abdullah, the former foreign minister, said he too would not appear.
A spokesman for Ghani confirmed the former finance minister and high-ranking World Bank official would still attend.
"He's not afraid of anything ... he's not afraid to face his people," Ghani's spokesman Ajmal Abidy said.
"Karzai is afraid to face an academic person with international experience like Dr Ghani ... If he shows up at the last minute today it means he's playing games and is not honest with his people," he said.
Karzai has led Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 by U.S.-backed Afghan forces for failing to handed over al Qaeda leaders wanted over the September 11 attacks.
He won Afghanistan's first direct presidential vote in 2004 and is heavily favored to retain power. An opinion survey by a U.S.-based group published in May gave Karzai a wide lead, with 31 percent support as the most popular choice for president.
Abdullah and Ghani both attracted only single-digit support.
DETERIORATING SECURITY
But deteriorating security across Afghanistan, especially in Karzai's power base in the south, could erode his lead. There are also concerns about endemic corruption and civilian casualties caused by foreign forces while hunting Taliban fighters.
Karzai is a Pashtun, Afghanistan's biggest ethnic group, and draws most of his support from southern provinces which have long been Taliban strongholds.
With violence this year hitting its highest levels since the Taliban's ouster, thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops launched major offensives in southern Helmand, the source of most of the opium poppy that funds the insurgency. Continued...
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