Karzai calls on Afghans to defy Taliban and vote

In a series of statements on Wednesday the Taliban said they had infiltrated 20 suicide bombers into Kabul and would close all the country's roads, taking no responsibility for the deaths of anyone who defied them to go to the polls.

It is Statements like this that should encourage the Afghan People to make it to the Polls !
And also should encourage everyone in Afghanistan to help exterminate the Taliban from existence !

KABUL (Reuters) - President Hamid Karzai called on Afghans to defy Taliban threats and vote, hours before polls opened in an election on Thursday that could prove the toughest test yet of his own mandate and his nation's fragile democracy.

Nearly as much as it is a test for Karzai, the election is also a high political hurdle for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has ordered a massive troop build-up this year as part of a strategy to reverse Taliban gains.

Afghan streets were tense with police on round-the-clock shifts. Karzai insisted the Taliban, stronger than at any time since they were toppled in 2001, would fail in their pledge to disrupt the country's second-ever presidential vote.

"Enemies will do their best, but it won't help," he told reporters late on Wednesday.

"I hope that tomorrow our countrymen, millions of them, will come and vote for the country's stability, for the country's peace, for the country's progress."

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