“Gahana is vital to the Taliban’s drug running operations here in opium rich Helmand province.  By liberating Gahana we free the local populace from the influence of the Taliban.  And, the Marines are hoping be able to vote in next week’s presidential election.  That’s what this operation is really about.” (CBS News)

“How confident are you that the elections will be able to take place in a safe, secure and transparent environment?

“I’m very confident, I’m optimistic, because the people of Afghanistan support the process.  One of the strongest indicators of support is that we just completed voter registration without a single incident.” (EUX.TV)

That was CBS News on U.S. troop operations and EUX.TV’s interview with the Chief Election Officer in Afghanistan.  On August 20th, the country will hold its second presidential elections under a new constitution.  

We’re monitoring worldwide media coverage of the election to give you a closer look at the major presidential candidates and what’s happening during the lead up to the national poll.  We’re tracking stories from PBS, CNN international, BBC Radio, Radio Free Europe and Comedy Central, among others.

NPR’s Renee Montagne, speaking on PBS via satellite from Kandahar, tells us why this election is crucial.

“What’s really striking is that it’s a real election.  There’s lots of worries that there’s an insurgency, a lot of worries about stuffing ballot boxes, about fraud.  But in fact, in 2004, people were learning how to vote…this time it’s a real election in most parts of the country.”

Let’s take a look at profiles of the candidates.

Incumbent president Hamid Karzai may be most familiar to Newsy viewers.  Many might remember him from an appearance on the Daily Show after the U.S. presidential election.
 
“I also congratulate senator Barack Obama as the president-elect of the United States and I wish him and the American people all the best. [Stewart]: And I look forward to being a central figure in the international crisis that will test him in the first sixty days…it’s going to be big.”

In 2008, MSNBC interviewed a professor of Afghan history about President Karzai’s background.

“Karzai comes from a leading Pashtun family, his family related to Pashtun kings.  He and his family escaped to the west and he played a minor role in the resistance against the soviets, and the Mujahadeen.”

Despite his ethnicity and credentials, since his election in 2004, Karzai has been called an American puppet, as an Afghan Member of Parliament charged in an interview with BBC Radio 4.
 
“Unfortunately enemies of Democracy are in power in Afghanistan.  It’s not important who’s voting it’s important who’s counting.  And it looks like Hamid Karzai that shameless puppet man will again be president.”

Here Karzai responds to the puppetry charges during an interview with CNN international.

“You’re often described as a puppet of the American administration.

Well, uh, me, a puppet, my god, anyway.

The Americans have helped Afghanistan tremendously, the American people have a feeling for Afghanistan for which we are grateful.

If I am a called a puppet because we are grateful to the American people, then be it, let that be my nickname.”

Next, the challengers: there’s former foreign minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah to whom Karzai gave the ministerial post due a strong showing in the 2004 presidential election.  The 48 year-old Soviet trained opthamologist is known as the guerilla doctor, having fought against the Soviets in the 1980’s and against the Taliban in the 1990’s.

Dr. Abdullah’s website includes a familiar call for change.

“I’m…asking you to believe in your own potential to change the course of our history.”

Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty’s Abubakar Siddique says Dr. Abdullah’s main change is transforming Afghanistan’s political structure.

“Abdullah is promising political transformation, the crux of which is to change Afghanistan's five-year-old presidential form of government to a parliamentary one led by a prime minister answerable to the parliament. He wants to devolve power to the local level with elected governors, mayors, and local administrators.”

Finally, at least for the big three, there’s Ashraf Ghani. American political advisor James Carville advises him.

The 60-year-old Ghani is a former professor at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins and also worked for the World Bank.  Underscoring his ties to the U.S. policy establishment, Ghani recently penned an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal that begins:

“Afghanistan’s upcoming presidential election represents a critical test for our young democracy. It is a referendum on the lawlessness of the current regime and the future stability of our country.”

He is known for a wonky focus on developmental political theory.  Here’s Ghani in action at a TED talk conference.

“How to mobilize different forms a capital for state building…capitalism, after 150 years has become acceptable, as has democracy.  Capitalistic economies and democratic polities used to be the rare exception, they no longer are.”

But, a blogger for Mideast youth notes that Ghani’s ties to the West may not be in Afghanistan’s best interest.

“Mr. Ghani western elites, in their blindness and arrogance, are not interested in giving you anything. They want to use your country as a justification to generate money for the transnational that put them in power.”

There are also a number of independent candidates, one of whom is known as the Afghan Ghandi and is running on an anti-corruption platform.

“The reason why Ramazon Bashardost is getting support from a big majority is that his criticism of the government is what most Afghans think.” (Euronews)

So, what do you think?  Who should lead Afghanistan?