With only four days to the nationwide presidential election, Afghan President Hamid Karzai took part in a televised debate with two opponents, both former cabinet ministers, who blasted Karzai's record on corruption and security, according to dpa. After pulling out from the first debate on Tolo, a private TV channel, in late July, Karzai appeared on the stage in a trilateral debate telecast live by Afghan state-run TV on Sunday evening. While Dr Abdullah Abdullah, who is widely seen as the main challenger for Karzai in the presidential race was absent, Ashraf Ghani, former finance minister and Ramazan Bashardost, former planning minister were both prepared to challenge the incumbent. During two hours of the prime-time TV debate, both Ghani and Bashardost lashed out at Karzai for his government's inability to tackle corruption and bring security in the war-torn country. "There are a lot of internal factors for insecurity in the country," Ghani said, pointing at "corrupt police" and "incompetent provincial officials" as the main source of insecurity in southern and eastern regions, where Taliban are most active. While echoing Ghani's concerns about deteriorating security, Bashardost said that unemployment was another reason that young Afghan people were joining the Taliban ranks. "People want food," he said. While defending his record during the past eight years of government, Karzai promised to accelerate the reconciliation process with Taliban and other militant groups if he won the election. A total of 41 people, including two women, had initially registered to run for the president post in the election, which is the second direct vote for the top post of the country in Afghanistan's recent history. Sunday's debate took place in Afghanistan's national TV and Radio station, which is located across from NATO headquarters in Kabul city, where a Taliban suicide attack on Saturday left seven Afghan civilians killed and more than 90 others, including NATO soldiers, wounded. Taliban have increased their attacks in the past two weeks, vowing that the militant group would disrupt the polling day, and warning the people not to vote or "be prepared to face death." Afghan Defence Minister General Abdul Rahim Wardak said in a press conference Sunday that more than 100,000 international troops and around 200,000 Afghan security forces would provide security for more than 6,500 polling stations on Thursday. But he admitted that given the size of the country and its population, the elections would be full of challenges. "There is no doubt that the total security forces of international community and Afghans are not enough to cover this much of area and this much of population, but still we will do our best," he said.
