Afghan campaign trail barely trod by Karzai

From his spacious but sparse home in Kabul, Homayoun Assefy is engineering the unimaginable: an Afghanistan without Hamid Karzai as president.

Mr. Assefy's methods are democratic. Through his new royalist party, the National Unity Movement of Afghanistan, Assefy is gathering multiethnic support to restore some constitutional role for the monarchy of King Zahir Shah, who was deposed more than 30 years ago. Assefy is himself a first cousin of the king.

Assefy says he worries that Karzai's credibility - and by extension, America's - is slipping because of the slow rate of reconstruction. Without change, he argues, Afghanistan could revert to chaos and war.

"This is a risky policy to put all the eggs in one basket. Mr. Karzai - he has lost his popularity, his credibility, his legitimacy," says the businessman and former fighter against the Soviets. "But even knowing this, the Americans are saying Karzai must be the next president. If this government fails, we could replace it. But if the Americans fail and leave Afghanistan, then it would be the end of all hope."

With most of the old powerbrokers preparing for next year's planned elections, it's curious that the only person who seems unprepared is Karzai. While the transitional president spent the past few months traveling the globe seeking aid, communists reformed their party, former anti-Soviet commanders met to create a common platform, and now the royalists have begun to enlist members. Even some of Karzai's supporters warn that time is running out to set up a campaign network.

"There is no question that the US will support Karzai," says Shahmahmood Miakhel, a senior official in the Interior Ministry and a friend of Karzai's. "But without a platform, without a network of supporters, without a political party, it is hard to reach the hearts and minds of people and very difficult to implement your programs."

Another friend of Karzai's is more abrupt. "Either he hasn't thought about the election or he hasn't told people about it," says the high-level official. "Neither possibility is good."

While US officials say the White House supports the transitional government, rather than specifically its president, foreign diplomats here say that American policy depends heavily on the continued rule of the US-leaning Karzai. The incoming US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, has projected Karzai as the only man to bring continuity and stability in the face of Taliban and Al Qaeda attacks. But inside the 1,500-year-old walled city of Kabul, where whispered intrigues and secret plots are as common as loaves of flat Afghan bread, Afghan politicians themselves seem determined to talk about alternatives.

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