...e country’s legitimate leader. Preliminary results from Afghanistan’s Independent Elections Commission put the first-round election April 5 at 44.9 percent for Abdullah, 31.5 percent for Ghani and 11.5 percent for Zalmay Rasul, with others in single digits. This poll, based on 2,643 face-to-face interviews in a nationwide random sample, had similar results among likely voters, 46-35-8 percent. The runoff contest tightens because likely voters who...
...and 16% who expected things to remain the same. These figures show improvement from last year’s survey, when only 35% expected prosperity and 39% expected difficulty. While a slight majority of Afghans believe that elections in their country are free and fair, there are still many who disagree. This is likely due, at least in part, to the protracted crisis in naming a winner following the second round of the presidential election. The survey asked...
...been occurring on Twitter, marked with #AfghanSurvey. The past year has been a challenging one for Afghanistan, and this is reflected in this year’s findings. 2015 has seen economic decline, heightened Taliban activity, and the emergence of Da’esh (ISIS) following the withdrawal of most U.S. and NATO forces at the end of 2014. The survey was conducted in the midst of the country’s deadliest fighting season since the Intervention in 2001, which sa...
