First votes cast in Afghan poll

Hopefully as few people as possible will die.

I am not enthusiastic about this election. This election is arraigned to help George W. Bush to be re-elected as the president of the US, to give him a foreign policy achievement. He will claim that this election will show the "progress" that has been "made" in Afghanistan and claim that it´s now a working democracy.

One great problem with this election is that it´s really about persons, not about politics - one can claim that all the candidates that have something like national recognizition, are nationalistic rightwing politicians, some are more conservative than others, some bow before religious authorities more than others, but there is little to choose from (and even if there are persons who are more politicians than others - some are warlords - all the big guys have blood in their hands). Especially as the president is totally at the mercy of foreign powers, who decide the fate of Afghanistan - will they give more troops to stabilize the country and more money to rebuild it? The answer to that question will decide the fate of Afghanistan and it´s a question in which Afghan people have little power.

Anyway, all commentators have decided months ago that Hamid Karzai will win the elections. Most likely he will. I don´t think that he would be as certain a victor if the rebuilding of Afghanistan would be well on it´s way, but now, as things are as they are, the Afghan people will probably don´t want to shake the boat and elect a new, less known figure as president. One less problem the struggle with.