(16 Jun 2002)
APTN
1. Wide view of Kabul street with traffic and security checkpoint
2. Various of Afghan presidential guard in back of truck
3. Side street with tight security
4. Various of vehicles at road block being searched by security forces armed with rocket launchers
5. Armed members of presidential guard seated in back of truck
6. Wide shot of truck in middle of road
7. Guard members smoking
8. Wide shot of Loya Jirga (grand council) members arriving at tent
POOL
9. Various of members of Loya Jirga entering tent to vote
10. Wide of members gathered in tent
11. Voting box being held up to show its empty
12. Women queuing
13. Various of people registering
14. Voting sheet held up
15. Man walking behind screen to vote
16. Man voting
17. Karzai shaking hands and speaking to council members
18. Man voting
19. Woman voting
20. Wide shot of council members
21. Votes being counted
22. Wide shot of officials gathered inside tent
POOL
23. SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Ismail Qasim Yar, head of the Loya Jirga commission:
"The votes of Hamid Karzai, 1,295."
24. Various of members getting up to applaud and cheer
25. Wide of Karzai being congratulated
26. SOUNDBITE (Pashtun) Hamid Karzai, transitional president of Afghanistan:
"This a big vote of confidence that you have given me. I am a man, I am a weak man but I am here to serve you, the Afghan people. Our faith, our religion, I will serve our mujahedeen people, and I will serve in the development of our country. Thank you for your confidence."
27. Wide of the gathering
APTN
28. Set up of Zalmay Khalilzad, US Envoy to Afghanistan
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Zalmay Khalilzad, US Envoy to Afghanistan:
"With this new beginning the country's put on a path to solve its problems, stand on its own feet, have the difficult problems that they've had left behind them. So, we're very hopeful and as an American official I'm very pleased with whatever role we've played in helping them get to this stage."
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Spokesman for former king Zaher Shah:
"I consider this a very good first step - and from now on hopefully with some, with a lot of assistance rather, from our friends and all that, we'll be able to reconstruct the country - most important, reunite and reintegrate Afghanistan."
31. Wide shot of loya jirga
STORYLINE:
Hamid Karzai, the US-backed leader of the interim Afghan administration, was overwhelmingly elected on Thursday as head of the new transitional government to rule the country for the next 18 months.
The 44-year-old chairman of the current interim government won 1,295 votes from delegates to the grand council, or Loya Jirga which has been meeting this week in Kabul.
Three others had been nominated although one was disqualified for lack of support.
Karzai won thunderous applause when the results were announced by the commission chairman, Ismail Qasim Yar.
The voting represented the first efforts at democracy for a country emerging from the ravages of two decades of war and poverty.
Karzai, praised for his reconciliation efforts during six months in power, promised a brighter future if the country's 27 million people can put aside ethnic differences and work together in peace.
US Envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad sees Thursday's events as an opportunity for Afghanistan to experience a fresh start.
Afghanistan's former rulers, the Taliban, and their foreign fighters - including those affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network - were ousted in a US-led military campaign which followed the September 11 attacks.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
