Today as Afghanis flooded the polls amid a government ban on media coverage, citizen journalism came from a surprising source: one of the candidates.
It’s barely a sentence, but it’s enough; around 10:00 AM ET, Ashraf Ghani tweeted a report of voter intimidation, stating, "Balkh District, Balk: Armed Gang headed by local warlrd named Nade standing infront of polling station forcing people to vote for Abdullah."
Ashraf Ghani is a deeply educated technocrat who has appears to have modeld parts of his campaign on that of President Barack Obama. A week ago, The New York Times said Ghani was "shaking up the campaign before Thursday’s election in unusual ways," and noted he had hired strategist James Carville as a consultant.