A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

Violence appears to be on the rise again after a series of car bombings in Iraq. Can the Iraqi government maintain the peace in the face of a diminished US military presence?

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

The incumbent, President Hamid Karzai, is seeking another term in office and is facing challenges from 40 other candidates.
Analysts say he is the clear front-runner, even though his reputation has been damaged by his failure to tackle corruption and the worsening conflict with the Taliban.
This will be the country’s second democratic election. The previous was held on October 9, 2004, in which President Hamid Karzai was the winner, allowing him to serve a five-year term that ends in October 2009. Mullah Omar leader of the Taliban, in December 2008 called for a boycott of the election. On March 11, 2009, NATO officials announced that 15.6 million voters had registered to vote, roughly half of the country’s population. 35 to 38 percent of the registered voters were women. These registration numbers have been disputed, however, by the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan and media reports, which suggest some fraudulent activity in the registration process.
Further reading: http://www.electionguide.org/election.php?ID=1175
Note: Top polled candidates only are provided here.

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

A new Politics/Elections poll has been created.

The way the result was announced was very unusual. It came out in blocks of millions of votes, in percentages, rather than being announced province-by-province as in past elections.
And as the blocks of votes came in, the percentages for each candidate changed very, very little. That suggested that Mr Ahmadinejad did equally well in rural and urban areas.
Conversely, it suggested that the other three losing candidates did equally badly in their home regions and provinces.
This overturns all precedents in Iranian politics and there has been no explanation, despite repeated questions, from the authorities.
It is all very suspicious. But it does not necessarily mean there has been widespread electoral fraud.
For example, a group of international pollsters did an independent telephone survey three weeks ago which suggested a two-to-one level of popular support for Mr Ahmadinejad over Mr Mousavi, with the other candidates on less than 2% each.