Word: ashraf
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Despite the danger, Yemen isn't about to go cold turkey anytime soon. Not only are most of the country's leaders landowners deeply involved in khat production, the leaf may be one of the few things still holding Yemen together. Says Ashraf Al-Eryani, one of GTZ's local program officers, "Khat plays a big role in keeping people calm, and keeping them off the streets. But it's also delaying change. It's hard to convince people...
Besides the President, there are 40 candidates on the ballot, but only two are contenders: Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a onetime Foreign Minister, and Ashraf Ghani, Karzai's former Finance Minister, who used to be an analyst with the World Bank. In a recently released poll conducted by U.S. pollsters Glevum Associates in July, Ghani was considered a long shot - garnering only a 4% rating, compared with Abdullah's 25% and Karzai's 31%. But in recent weeks, the relentlessly pragmatic Ghani has steadily gained ground, according to private polls conducted by nonpartisan groups. Those polls also indicate that Karzai...
...member of parliament who supports Karzai. She says she's not satisfied with the extra security measures in place and wants the vote to be postponed. On the other hand, Agha Wali, 32, says he's sure polling stations will be safe and that he plans to vote for Ashraf Ghani, the policy-oriented former Finance Minister. Shafiqa, 21, insists through the cloak of her burqa that she will cast a vote to re-elect Karzai "no matter how bad" the situation is on Thursday. "If I die," she adds, "it will be with pride that...
...week until Afghans go to the polls to vote for only the second time to choose a president, a pair of recent polls showed he had alternately 8% or 10% of voters surveyed last month, placing him third behind president Hamid Karzai and his rival, Abdullah, and ahead of Ashraf Ghani, the brainy former finance minister...
Though violence has stalked Abdullah's campaign - a campaigner was shot and injured in an attack in nearby Laghman province while Abdullah was in Panshir - that is hardly unusual in Afghanistan: Fahim's retinue too has been attacked, as have several aides to Ashraf Ghani. But expected violence in the country's south may be of benefit to Abdullah. Election authorities estimate that some 700 out of 7,000 polling stations nationwide will not be able to open on the day of elections due to violence, most in the Pashtun-dominated south where Karzai is favored, possibly depriving...