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Too early to name favourite runner: Mahmoud

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12 May 2014 - 11:09
author avatar
12 May 2014 - 11:09

KANDAHAR CITY (Pajhwok): President Hamid Karzai’s brother Mahmoud Karzai on Monday said he would support a presidential candidate with a forward-looking policy and programme for Afghanistan’s future in the looming runoff.

Mahmoud, a leading businessman and developer, had supported Zalmai Rassoul, a former foreign minister, in the first round of the presidential elections on April 5.

But Rassoul, who finished third, has now joined forces with frontrunner Abdullah Abdullah. Mahmoud’s brother Qayyum Karzai dropped out of the race and endorsed Rassoul days before the ballot.

When asked whether he and Qayyum would follow in Rassoul’s footsteps or swing behind Ghani in the second round of elections, Mahmoud replied no decision had been taken as yet.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News he and Qayyum would support one of the two leading candidates, who had more credible policies and future programmes.

“We have been consulting the people who stood behind us in the first round. We will back a candidate having the best economic plans and policies, which can bring peace and stability to the country and strengthen national unity.”

Mahmoud said they held five consultative gatherings, but did not reach a final decision.

Asked whose policies and programmes enthused him most, Mahmoud replied he had not read the manifesto of Ghani, but he believed the economist had the ability to prove a better administrator and form a more efficient government. He said their economic policies matched those of Ghani.

But in the same breath, Mahmoud said he had shared his economic policy with Abdullah, who had endorsed that. He repeated it was too early to say who they would support in the runoff as they were looking at the policies and programmes of the two leading runners.

ma/mud

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