DAVID GREENE, host:
And we'll stay on the topic of those upcoming elections in Afghanistan. The Taliban made good on its threat of pre-election violence today with a suicide car bombing outside of NATO headquarters in Kabul. At least seven people died and more than 90 were wounded. A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force said there were both military and Afghan civilian casualties. Apparently the bomber detonated the explosives right near the doorstep of NATO's military headquarters.
Militants have been warning Afghans not to cast those ballots and they have threatened to attack polling places, and this explosion was the first major attack in Kabul since February. President Hamid Karzai, who has been leading in the polls, condemned this attack, but said it will not keep people from voting on Thursday. More than a 100,000 international troops, 175,000 members of Afghan security forces, are all preparing to provide security on election day.
We spoke yesterday to NPR's Renee Montagne. She was in Kabul, where she's been following the upcoming election. We asked her how the candidates were spending the days leading up to this big vote.
RENEE MONTAGNE: Like candidates everywhere, I guess, they are all out at rallies as far as I can tell. The couple of - three main contenders - not including the president, who is highly protected and can only move around so much in the country, so his rallies are few and far between - but the other contenders, Abdullah Abdullah, Dr. Ashraf Ghani, kind of wild card candidate Ramazan Bashardost, these guys, what we're seeing is, they're going to rallies, the numbers are getting bigger. A couple of days ago, Abdullah Abdullah went up north and had 30,000 people at a rally, which was a huge number of people. It might be the biggest rally that's happened here, period, in this election season. So they're out, they are basically out, you know, on the stump.
GREENE: If we talk about these top contenders, President Karzai and the others, I understand that Karzai tried to strike a deal this week with some of these main rivals. Tell us a little about that.
MONTAGNE: Yeah, he suggested a deal and the deal was sort of: if I win, or when I win, I will bring my two closest challengers into my government, and those were expected to be Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and also Ashraf Ghani. We've done profiles of them on NPR. Neither of them responded very well to this suggestion. They both more or less responded with we're going to run our campaigns and let the voters decide. But you know, what President Karzai is trying to do, to some degree it may be to diffuse any sort of tension going into the poll.
It also suggests that there'll be something, they wouldn't call it that, but a unity government that they'd all rally around, whatever person is elected. So you know, there is some possibility though - actually, David, that one or both of these candidates will end up in his government. The one most likely to end up is Ashraf Ghani, who's a technocrat, 30 years, 20-some years in the West, worked for the World Bank. Has very detailed plans for what to do here in Afghanistan, if he wins. But has also been talked about and talked to by American officials as a possible what you might call an executive - somebody who would actually run the government, that - in way that Hamid Karzai has been criticized for not doing.
GREENE: And I guess this could also be a way for Karzai to sort of portray himself as the winner before the voting actually happens.
MONTAGNE: Yes, that is one extra benefit of making that offer. He is, like all incumbents, trying to maintain - you know, he's running his election to some extent from the presidential palace.
GREENE: I mean, can this election actually be legitimate, fair? I mean is that a possibility? What is your prediction at this point on how this will be seen, once it's done?
MONTAGNE: Well, there are people who say both things. There's a lot of worry that it won't be seen as legitimate. There is also the hope that people, even in areas where voting is down because of conflict, will take it as it is - as good as it's going to get.
There's some dynamics, though. The areas that are the most insecure tend to be Pashtun areas. Those are people who would vote for Hamid Karzai, most likely. If their votes are not there, this would hurt him. But on the other hand, if he in fact wins these are not people who are going to complain about it.
GREENE: How are the Afghan people feeling? Are they excited about this, nervous?
MONTAGNE: Well, it really depends absolutely on where you go. Definitely people in conflict areas are nervous. But it's really surprising. I was out in a province a couple of weeks ago, going to a Karzai rally, where you would think nobody in these very rural areas, you know, mountains and these mud-brick compounds of farms, would even be paying attention to these elections.
And yet there would be a campaign poster for one of the local candidates. And we even saw campaign posters for local candidates on the sides of rocks, along the mountainside. So people are pretty excited about it. So I think where they can vote, they will vote.
GREENE: You've been listening to the voice of Renee Montagne, who's of course co-host of NPR's MORNING EDITION. She's wrapping up a trip in Afghanistan and she joined us from Kabul.
Hey, Renee, thanks.
MONTAGNE: Thank you, David.
GREENE: Renee mentioned those profiles of the candidates in Afghanistan. You can check them out and explore all of her reporting, along with the rest of our coverage of the presidential election in Afghanistan. Just go to the new npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
