Hamid's Shadow: Karzai Confidant Takes Aim at Afghan Presidency --- Zalmai Rassoul has long been a close political ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Now, he is campaigning to succeed his mentor. With Karzai backing Rassoul, many believe the outgoing leader is seeking to retain his influence. --- The small helicopter descends onto the football pitch of Nangarhar University in Jalalabad and a gray-bearded man wearing a Merino wool jacket emerges from the bright cloud of dust. Zalmai Rassoul approaches the group waiting to receive him, men wearing pakols -- the brown, woolen caps of the mujahedeen -- with shawls elegantly draped across their shoulders. They hurriedly ushered Rassoul into a white, armored SUV and the motorcade quickly departed. -- It is campaign season in Afghanistan, with the presidential vote slated for April 5, and this day on the stump begins for Rassoul at the grave of Amanullah Khan in Jalalabad, the provincial capital not far from the Pakistani border. Afghans revere the former king for liberating them from the British -- and he was candidate Zalmai Rassoul's uncle. Here, on the eastern edge of Afghanistan, where the winters are mild and the orange trees fertile, Amanullah Khan has found his final resting place. -- Amanullah was a radical reformer. He was the first Afghan head of state to try to model his country after Western industrial societies. But he failed. He tried to do too much too quickly, resulting in widespread opposition to his plans. Amanullah was toppled in 1929, was forced to flee and died in Swiss exile 31 years later. -- Now that the former king's nephew is seeking the presidency, is Afghanistan ready for the sleeveless blouses and hair free of headscarves that Amanullah's beautiful Queen Soraya preferred? Or is it at least prepared for Rassoul's vision of an advanced Afghanistan? That was the focus of the speech he planned to deliver in the stadium of Jalalabad. -- Zalmai Rassoul is one of three top candidates to succeed Hamid Karzai. The other two are the Pashtun Ashraf Ghani, a technocrat educated in the US who previously served at the World Bank, and Abdullah Abdullah, the leading opposition candidate. His father is likewise Pashtun, but Abdullah Abdullah primarily represents the majority Tajik powers of the former Northern Alliance, the group which joined the Americans in toppling the Taliban government in 2001. -- The possible outcome of the race is difficult to predict, though it is expected that the first vote will result in a run-off between Abdullah Abdullah and one of the other candidates. In the second round, either Ghani or Rassoul will likely emerge victorious. But with just days to go before the first round of voting, a possible coalition between Rassoul and Abdullah is in the works. It also, of course, can't be excluded that local politicians, as they did five years ago, will stuff the ballot boxes. - More, Susanne Koelbl, Der Spiegel, at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/zalmai-rassoul-seeks-to-emerge-from-karzai-shadow-in-afghan-elections-a-960732.html