By registering in their millions to vote in their country's first free elections, Afghans may just have salvaged the credibility of what many feared was a doomed enterprise. The introduction of democracy has had to contend with terrifying security and logistical problems, the threat of murderous power struggles between warlords, worries about intimidation, and attacks on government and election officials. Some observers believe that holding parliamentary elections so soon after the toppling of the Taliban will reinforce the grip of armed factions now rich with narco-dollars. Others claim the timetable has more to do with elections in the United States than with Afghanistan's needs. Until recently, Kabul was rife with predictions that the elections would have to be called off.
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