US: Democratic candidates gain support abroad
Kabul, 18 April (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - US presidential candidate Barack Obama has generated broad support in Afghanistan, while Somalis would prefer to work with his Democratic rival Senator Hillary Clinton. These are the findings of a survey conducted by the international think-tank, The Senlis Council, in Afghanistan and Somalia in March and April. According to the think-tank, the results of this year's US presidential elections are "critical to both countries," as they are both "strongly affected by US policy". When asked which of the presidential candidates they would back, 69 percent of those questioned in Afghanistan favoured Obama, while 26 percent were in favour of Clinton. In Somalia, 47 percent of civilians surveyed supported Clinton, while 44 percent backed Obama. "What we are seeing is that Afghans have overwhelming support of Senator Obama because they are attracted by his promises to bring peace and end the war in Iraq," said Norine MacDonald, president and lead field researcher of council. "Most interestingly, we found unified support for Senator Clinton amongst Somalis associated with the Islamic courts, and the extremist parts of the community. According to their perceptions of Senator Clinton's character and experience, she is best suited as a partner to build peace with Muslims." Somalis said that Obama would avoid engaging in Islamic issues because he would be vulnerable to allegations of being overly sympathetic to a Muslim viewpoint, given his family's Islamic background. Obama is the son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas, who met and married in Hawaii. Divorced when Obama was a child, his mother then married an Indonesian man and the family moved to Jakarta for four years. Although his father and step-father were Muslim, Obama is a practising Christian and attended secular and Catholic schools. "Obama will not be able to deliver a positive working relationship with the Muslim people. The US people are very suspicious of his Muslim background and if they see him in a room with Muslim leaders they will not trust him to represents US interests," said one of the respondents in Mogadishu. The strongest support for Obama in the Somali community came from those most closely associated with the Somali government. In Afghanistan and Somalia, there was little support for the likely Republican nominee John McCain. In both countries, support for Senator McCain was very low, with just 5 percent of respondents in Afghanistan and 9 percent in Somalia opting for the Republican nominee. "McCain is no different to Bush at all. We would be very concerned if McCain was elected," said a businessman from Mogadishu. "The whole world is looking to the US to bring back the dignity and morality of the US." According to the Senlis Council, the interviews both in Afghanistan and Somalia, showed a keen interest in the US presidential race. "The interviews revealed a high level of awareness amongst Afghans and Somalis of the upcoming US presidential elections," said Gabrielle Archer, policy analyst at The Senlis Council. "Their knowledge of the candidates shows that people in both countries realise the significant impact that the choice of US president plays in their lives." In offering a message to the next US president, peace was an overriding concern amongst both Afghan and Somali respondents, refuting any perception that ordinary Afghans and Somalis are interested in perpetuating their own conflicts. "Afghans and Somalis alike want to pursue peace," said Archer. "They hope the next president will see the vital importance of support in both Afghanistan and Somalia as an integral part of US foreign policy." A total of 388 people were interviewed in Afghanistan in the cities of Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar City and Lashkar Gah, while 302 Somalis were surveyed in Mogadishu, Baidoa and Hargeisa. The series of interviews were part of initial research that precedes a comparative study of the insurgency and politics of both countries, which will be released on the 23 April in London. The Senlis Council is an international policy think tank with offices in Kabul, London, Ottawa, Rio de Janeiro, Brussels and Paris. http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.2085774114 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
