The almost-candidate

The first of the possible presidential frontrunners emerges ahead of Afghanistan's elections.

Jean MacKenzieApril 4, 2009 15:00Updated May 30, 2010 11:51

Former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah in Kabul March 3, 2009. (Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

KABUL — Afghanistan’s election fever has started in earnest. With the cutoff for announcing candidacy a mere three weeks away, hopefuls are sending up trial balloons and assessing their chances, not only with their potential constituencies, but with the international media.

On Friday, April 3, the first of the possible presidential frontrunners emerged, to give broad hints and a bit of lunch to a press corps hungry for more than lamb and rice.

“I cannot hide it any more,” said Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan's former foreign minister, when asked if he would be on the ballot. “It is going that way.”

His campaign slogan?

“I do not want to borrow anyone else’s message,” he said with a smile. “But I would have to say ‘Change.’”

Like any practiced politician, Abdullah was long on generalities, short on specifics. Unsurprisingly, he stands for honesty and transparency, rule of law, closer ties between the government and the people, and is a staunch foe of Afghanistan’s booming heroin industry.

However, he is not so clear on just how he differs from his main rival, President Hamid Karzai. The focus is more on execution than vision.

Karzai "does not have any message that things will get better,” he said, speaking to a small group of international journalists at his home in the Panjshir Valley, which once served as a headquarters for the anti-Soviet group of fighters known as the Northern Alliance. “The trend has been sliding down.”

A suave, English-speaking professional with a long and complex history in Afghanistan, Abdullah will most likely be the consensus candidate of the National United Front, a coalition of disparate political groups that formed two years ago with only one common goal: their uncompromising opposition to the Afghan president.

It has not been easy. Speaker of parliament Younus Qanuni and First Vice President Ahmad Zia Massoud were also in the running, but seem to have been edged out by the fact that, as ethnic Tajiks, they could never appeal to the country’s Pashtuns, who make up close to half of the electorate.

Abdullah is a controversial figure for many Afghans. Although he lays claim to Pashtun ethnicity on his father’s side, he was born in Panjshir province, close to Kabul, and is closely identified with the Northern Alliance.