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Afghans tepid to presidential runoff vote
Instead of the usual brisk trade in carpets, silks and gemstones, the popular strip of shops along Chicken Street in Kabul is now largely deserted. Sales are down by half: shopkeepers blame Afghanistan's political uncertainty.
Across the country there is a deep disenchantment with the thought of a new election. "If there is a second round we will not participate," Sadruddin Khan, a tribal elder in Kandahar, said. "It is not worth it to us to once again face the possibility of having our fingers and heads chopped off, and our police and soldiers die. Neither Karzai nor Abdullah are worth the lives of our children."
This is the rub. Although NATO is now putting a contingency plan drawn up weeks ago into practice, Afghan forces are mobilizing and the UN has launched a vast logistics operation distributing millions of fresh ballot papers, boxes and indelible ink across the country, there is no saying that two of the largest problems with the first round–low turnout and widespread fraud–will not blight a repeat.