Afghan election set to be fiasco

[Darranar]

Afghans in the southeastern province of Khost were given a stark warning this week in preparation for the 9 October presidential elections: Vote for Hamid Karzai or get your house burnt down.

Some 300 elders of the Tarzi tribe expanded on their ominous electioneering technique in a public statement released on Friday.

Any man who does not vote for the US-appointed interim president, they said, will not be buried by his family. And he can forget about marrying off his female relatives, too.

But fear is just one part of the everyday reality for millions of ordinary Afghan people, according to more than a dozen national and international organisations.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C020C1F5-93C9-4301-B852-C5187C0F201D.htm