Taleban leaders chase Afghanistan votes

KABUL - Among the election campaign posters that cover almost every available space on Afghanistan's streets are faces from the past. At least five former Taleban leaders are standing in Sunday's parliamentary elections - and one was a leader of the insurgency until a few months ago.

In this extraordinary election, which sees former communists standing against mujahideen, the most remarkable candidates are the former Taleban.

They include Mullah Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, the former Foreign Minister who tried to warn the US about the September 11 attacks and who became the face of the Taleban to the world in the lead-up to the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Also among them are a former Taleban intelligence chief, and the deputy head of the notorious vice and virtue police, who used to force women to wear the burqa and men to grow their beards long.

They are standing as candidates even as the Taleban are resurgent across the south and east of the country. The Taleban have condemned the elections, and threatened to kill any candidate taking part.

Mullah Muttawakil and the four other prominent former Taleban have renounced their past. None has been banned by authorities, despite 21 other candidates with warlord links being barred.

But one, Mullah Abdul Wahid Bughrani, renounced his Taleban links only this year. Until then he was a leader of the insurgency, fighting on after the fall of the Taleban, leading attacks against US and Afghan forces in the Helmand province. He is considered almost certain to win a seat.

During the years of Taleban rule, the ultra-moderate Mullah Muttawakil was the public face of the movement. He is believed to have been involved in negotiations with Pakistan to hand over Osama bin Laden, but was overruled by Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

In 2002, it was revealed he had tried to warn the US that al Qaeda was planning a major attack on US soil, but was ignored.

He is standing as a candidate in his native Kandahar, the spiritual heartland of the Taleban, but there are doubts over whether he will do well because he lacks tribal support.

Also standing is Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi, who got his name when he shot down a Russian helicopter with a hand-held rocket-launcher from his motorbike.

There have been rumours he might be banned because of his past. In the 1990s he kidnapped a senior Pakistani official and Chinese engineers from Pakistan in revenge after Pakistani troops raided his base. He is running in Zabol province.

Mullah Mohammed Khaksar was the Taleban's intelligence chief and deputy interior minister. He was the only Taleban official to stay in Kabul when the regime collapsed in 2001. "My supporters do not want a system of Islam like the Taleban," he has said. He is standing in Kandahar.

Mullah Karamuddin was deputy of the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. He is standing in Logar province.

All five are said to be on a list of those banned from travelling outside Afghanistan. And there are believed to be at least three other Taleban figures among more than 2700 candidates.

I VOTE FOR THE DUCK

Bunches of flowers, door handles, elephants and birdbaths will play critical roles in determining the country's future.

Eighty per cent of Afghanistan's women and half the men are illiterate so each candidate has a symbol with their name and photo on the ballots.

The elections are being fought on a non-party basis so party symbols are out. Organisers also have to avoid symbols with strong positive, negative or religious meanings.

Symbols on the ballots include fish, butterflies, deer, camels, lions, horses and birds. Then there are yachts, cement trucks, beds, barbells, bread, wristwatches and pliers. To help make up the numbers, there are also multiples of the same symbol such as two or three ducks.

The symbols were dished out in a lucky dip organised by the United Nations. Candidates pulled three symbols out of a box and had to choose one.

- INDEPENDENT and REUTERS