ISAS Insights

Incumbent Hamid Karzai is the front-runner, by a considerable distance, in the upcoming Presidential elections in Afghanistan – a far cry from predictions made as recently as six months ago that he had become lame duck as he had lost the confidence of both the Afghans and the Americans. His opposition was clustering around a new grouping, the United National Front, his allies were deserting him and he seemed doomed to be in the footnotes of Afghanistan’s history. Critically, there were constitutional and legal issues about his term that seemed to seriously question his continuance in office beyond 22 May 2009, with elections scheduled only for 20 August 2009. However, the circle seems to have come around and those Afghans and foreigners hoping for a change of leadership and fortunes are sounding extremely demoralised.