People

Hamid Karzai: Karzai was elected President of Afghanistan in 2004, and has played an important part in politics in Afghanistan for many years. He accompanied the first Mujahedeen fighters into Kabul in 1992 and served as Deputy Foreign Minister. In Decemeber 2001 he was selected to serve as Head of the transitional administration after the collapse of the Taliban. Some have criticised his close links with the West and view it with suspicion but he won a second five-year term in the 2009 Presidential elections, despite low voter turnout amid fears of election violence.

Yunus Qanuni: Qanuni is the leader of the party Afghanistan e Naween and was previously the Speaker of the House of the People (the lower house of the Afghan parliament). Qanuni was involved in the creation of the Northern Alliance and joined the Mujahedeen forces against the Soviets. While he has not been able to form  a party alliance that could challenge the Karzai government, he is viewed as a powerful political force and has clout internationally, previously acting as the chief-negotiator for the Northern Alliance in Germany in 2001.

image by DVIDSHUB, published under the Creative Commons License.

Abdullah Abdullah: Abdullah is the leader of the Coalition for Change and Hope, which was created in 2010, prior to this he ran as an independent candidate in the 2009 Afghan presidential elections and came second with 30.5 per cent of the vote. He had only a first name; Abdullah, but was continually asked by foreign press for a last name, so he added Abdullah as his family name. He also acted as Foreign Minister after the US invasion from 2001 to 2005.

Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi: Ibrahimi was announced as the new speaker for the lower house, known as Wolesi Jirga in  Pashto. Ibrahimi was a lesser known member of the lower house and it now falls to him to bring order and restore the Parliament’s cohesiveness after the problems in 2010 concerning election fraud. Ibrahimi represents the Kunduz Province and is an ethnic Uzbek, there is speculation that some Pashtun and Hazara MPs wanted to prevent an ethnic Tajik from taking the post after the disagreements with Qanuni.

Abdul Rabb Rasoul Sayyaf: Sayyaf is the leader of the Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan and an elected member of parliament. He was a leading member of the Mujahedeen forces against the Soviets and received large amounts of financial support from Saudi Arabia during the Soviet War. It is also believed that he formed a friendship with bin Laden. Although he is considered a member of the Northern Alliance he is seen as having close relations with more radical, extremist groups.

General Rashid Dostum: General Rashid Dostum is Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Afghan National Army, although the role is thought by some to be ceremonial. He is also the leader of the Junbesh-e-Melli Islami, a predominantly Uzbek militia faction. Dostum previously fought with the Soviets against the Mujahedeen, before switching sides after the Soviet exit. He has also worked with the US forces against the Taliban and is accused by human rights groups of murdering hundreds of Taliban prisoners. In 2008 he was removed from his post after his alleged involvement in a politically motivated attack on a rival. However, Karzai asked for him to be reappointed in 2009 during the election campaign.

image by United Nations Photo, published under the Creative Commons License

Mullah Mohammed Omar: Mullah Mohammed Omar is seen by many as the founder of the Taliban and its current spiritual leader. He began the Taliban movement in 1990s and was the Head of State under the Taliban rule, however he rarely left Kandahar during this time and little is known about him by foreign media.  He is currently, supposedly, in Pakistan directing the Taliban insurgency against the occupying forces and the Karzai administration. He is wanted by the FBI since late 2001.

Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani: Mawlawi Jalaluddin Haqqani is a military leader, and is often cited by Western media as being head of the Haqqani Network that is part of the insurgency against the occupying forces and the Karzai administration. The group has been mainly active in the east of Afghanistan. Under the Taliban rule he served as the Minister of Borders and Tribal Affairs in the east in the Paktia Province. During the Soviet invasion he was instrumental in sourcing funding from Saudi Arabia to the Mujahedeen forces.

Parties

In the run up to the 2010 elections a report found there to be over 100 political parties, however there was confusion with the re-registration of many of these political parties, so that many are no longer officially recognised.  The AFPAK Channel wrote a concise report on the vast landscape of the different parties and other independent candidates.

National United Front of Afghanistan (Jabhe-ve-Motahed-e-Milli): This coalition was formed in 2007 and is comprised of many influential figures in Afghan politics and military. These include Yunus Qanuni (the former speaker of the lower house) and General Rashid Dostum. The inclusion of other well-known Pashtun royalists in the coalition strengthen its opposition to the current Karzai administration. However, there are doubts by some commentators that the coalition will be able to stay united in its aims.

National Democratic Front: The coalition was founded in 2003 and is composed of 13 political parties, some of which are secular. They have received US support but have failed to gain more support in rural areas or sectarian strongholds.

Afghan Mellat (Afghan Social Democratic Party): The party was founded in the 1960s by Gulam Mohammed Farhad, who defended the ethnic rights of Pashtuns, and is sometimes branded an ultranationalist group. Its current leader is Anwar al-Haq Ahadj, and despite attempts to reach out to ethnic groups, its stance on the superiority of Pashtuns remains clear. However, since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 the party has gained support from Karzai and Ahadj is the current Minister of Finance under the Karzai administration.

Five of the other main registered political parties are as follows:

Hezb-e Musharekat-e Melli (National Participation Party)
Hezb-e Muttahed-e Melli (National United Party)
Hezb-e Wahdat-e Islami (Islamic Unity Party)
Hezb-e Paiwand-e Melli (National Union Party)
Nohzat-e Hambastagi-ye Melli (National Solidarity Movement)

image by United Nations Photo, published under the Creative Commons License