Vote leaders take campaigns across Afghanistan

[Coventina]

Source: AFP

KABUL — The top candidates in the Afghan presidency race jetted across the nation Friday to win support for next week's polls as an official claimed some Taliban commanders would allow voting in their areas.

An eager crowd of around 10,000 welcomed President Hamid Karzai, frontrunner in the August 20 elections, after he flew into Herat for his first rally in the western city in a nearly two-month campaign, an AFP reporter said.

In an address, Karzai repeated a pledge to draw the Taliban into talks to end their insurgency and presented his inclusion of former warlords in his election bid as proof that he brought unity to ethnically diverse Afghanistan.

"We're working for peace across the country, it's a matter of pride for us that national unity is established in Afghanistan," he said, standing alongside Herat strongman and powerful Soviet resistance commander Ismail Khan.



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