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Karzai will not seek third term: spokesman
 [Al Ahram] Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... is not secretly planning to change the country's constitution to seek a third term in power, his front man insisted on Saturday. Recent media reports, citing a document set out by Germany's foreign intelligence service, said Karzai was seeking special dispensation to guide the country through uncertainty after NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... ends its combat mission in 2014. But Aimal Faizi said Karzai, the only leader in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion brought down the Taliban, was not planning to change the constitution, which allows two terms as president. "Karzai has no intention to remain in power after his second term," Faizi told AFP. "The president has made it very clear, including in his loya jirga speech, that he will not run again," he said, referring to a speech at a traditional gathering of elders last month. "He has no plan to run again. He'd rather give the chance to someone new. "We dismiss the recent media reports citing some intelligence that said President Karzai is running for a third time," Faizi said. Karzai was sworn in as interim leader of Afghanistan in December 2001, shortly after the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban. In 2004, he won the country's first direct presidential elections with 55.4 per cent of the vote. But his re-election in 2009 was mired in allegations of corruption, in which challenger Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... abandoned a second-round run-off and Sherlocks threw out a third of Karzai's original votes because of fraud. Karzai has previously also denied rumours he is planning to cling to power when his second term comes to an end in three years' time. Posted by: Fred 2011-12-11 |
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