Poll finds Karzaiwith majority vote

Afghan President Hamid Karzai won majority support from among the 10 million registered voters, including broad backing from minority voters in a nation rife with ethnic divisions, according to a survey by U.S. election observers released yesterday.

“The leading candidate, Karzai, received a very strong majority of votes and will be able to claim a powerful mandate from the Afghan people,” said the survey by the Washington-based International Republican Institute (IRI).

With official results not expected until the end of the month, the survey offers the first indication that Mr. Karzai managed to win the 50 percent minimum vote needed to avoid a runoff.

The survey said Mr. Karzai received support from 86 percent of Pashtun voters. This was not surprising, as Mr. Karzai belongs to that ethnic group, which is the largest in Afghanistan. But, unexpectedly, 40 percent of Tajik voters also said they chose Mr. Karzai.

The IRI, a group funded by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy and tied to the Republican Party in the United States, based its conclusion on a survey of more than 17,000 Afghan voters on election day, Saturday.

More than 450 Afghan volunteers conducted interviews at 177 locations across Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan, where more than 700,000 refugee voters cast ballots.

More than 10 million registered voters surprised international observers by disregarding personal safety to form long lines at polling stations.

Their enthusiasm not only thwarted efforts by Taliban and al Qaeda fugitives to attack voters, but also forced more than a dozen presidential candidates to back down after announcing a boycott on election day.

Tajiks are the second-largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, and relations between the Tajiks and the Pashtuns were strained during the Taliban era because most regime leaders were Pashtuns.

The hard-line Taliban persecuted the Tajiks, forcing many to leave the capital, Kabul, and seek refuge in the Tajik-dominated northern provinces.

Moreover, the Taliban never conquered a huge swath of northeastern Afghanistan, which was controlled by resistance fighter Ahmed Shah Masood, a Tajik who later was assassinated.

Mr. Masood’s brother, Ahmed Zia Masood, ran on Mr. Karzai’s ticket for vice president.

Mr. Karzai’s defense minister, Mohammed Fahim, who is a powerful Tajik militia commander, broke with the president when the election campaign formally started. The break prompted fears that the election could turn into a conflict between the Pashtuns and the Tajiks.

Mr. Fahim supported rival candidate, former Education Minister Younus Qanooni, bringing along other powerful Tajik personalities, such as Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Doomsday predictions intensified when other powerful ethnic leaders, such as the Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, filed to run against Mr. Karzai.

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