KABUL — President Hamid Karzai and 40 other candidates will appear on the ballot for president this August in a crowded political lineup Afghanistan’s electoral commission chief on Saturday called “shameful.”
Karzai is considered the clear front-runner to win Afghanistan’s second presidential election since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. His strongest challengers in the Aug. 20 vote include former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Two women are also among the 41 candidates.
In announcing the final list of candidates, Azizullah Lodin, the head of Afghanistan’s election commission, said he believed that many of the candidates were not qualified but said he had no power to remove them from the ballot.
“I personally feel ashamed that when I ask someone are you literate, and he says no. I ask if he has a professional background, and he says no. I ask if he was a mullah in a mosque, and he says no. And now he comes and registers himself and he wants to be president of Afghanistan. This is really shameful,” Lodin told reporters.
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