April 15, 2014: With over 95 percent of the paper ballots delivered to the capital and 15 percent counted it appears that no candidate received more than fifty percent so there will be a runoff between the top two candidates. At the moment that would be Abdullah Abdullah (a long time Karzai rival and believed to have lost the 2009 vote because of fraud) with 42 percent and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (a former finance minister and World Bank official) with 38 percent. Karzai, the incumbent, backed Zalmai Rassoul, who received only ten percent. Despite strenuous efforts the Taliban once again failed to keep many people from voting. International observers detected some voting fraud, but far less than in 2009. There were more complaints of fraud than in 2009. Afghan police said they foiled 65 suicide bomb attacks (and even more non-suicide attacks) and arrested 262 Islamic terrorists since early March and this was the main reason the Taliban terror campaign against the election failed. The police raids also seized over 250 rifles, machine-guns and rocket launchers, lots of ammo, radios, over 3,000 mines, 19 suicide vests and over eight tons of explosives. Afghan public health officials recently revealed that life-expectancy had increased from 45 years in 2001 to 63 years now. This, plus the rapid economic growth since 2001 means Afghanistan is no longer the poorest country in Eurasia. The increased life expectancy is largely the result to improved sanitation and medical care, especially for newborns and children under five. One reason for the growing hostility towards the Taliban is the continuing efforts of these Islamic radicals to limit the spread of better health care and economic improvements in general. The most obvious example of this is the continuing Taliban opposition to vaccination programs, which the Taliban consider a Western effort to poison Moslem children. Then there is education, which has rapidly increased, despite constant, and often fatal, Taliban resistance. Better educated children are healthier because they learn about how to keep healthy in addition of how to read and count. Taliban insist that education concentrate mainly on religious matters and that girls be excluded. Islamic educators stress the importance of living like the original 7 th century Moslems and avoiding modern technology. This is not popular with most Afghans.



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Afghanistan: Taliban Again Fail To Disrupt An Election

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