Karzai’s Brother Is Expected to Drop Out of Afghanistan’s Presidential Race --- KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai has vowed to stay out of Afghanistan’s presidential race, and not to show preference or prejudice toward any of the 11 contenders, but it is now clear that he has made an exception in at least one case: his own brother. -- After what Afghan officials have described as months of behind-the-scenes pressure from the president, Qayum Karzai is expected to pull out of the election on Thursday. -- An aide to Qayum Karzai, Aminullah Habibi, said Mr. Karzai would most likely throw his support — and considerable campaign financing — behind Zalmay Rassoul, the former foreign minister. -- “Negotiations are still taking place — we still have things to talk about — but it will be final tomorrow,” Mr. Habibi said on Wednesday. -- An official in Mr. Rassoul’s campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet official, confirmed that account. “It is going to happen, but it is not finalized yet,” he said. -- Despite the vocal support of other family members, Qayum Karzai’s entry to the race was said to have defied the president’s wishes from the start. -- That became more clear late last month, when people close to the president convened a jirga, or gathering of elders, of 170 mostly Pashtun tribal leaders whose main focus was to negotiate between the Qayum Karzai and Rassoul campaigns to persuade one or the other to back out. -- “We have met with both candidates, and they both promised that they would accept any decision that the unity jirga takes,” said Qazi Mohammad Amin Weqad, one of the group’s leaders. -- That jirga initially voted overwhelmingly to support Qayum Karzai’s candidacy, but when they met with President Karzai, he persuaded them to change their decision in favor of Mr. Rassoul, according to Mr. Weqad. -- “President Karzai’s intervention doesn’t mean that he wants to intervene in the election,” Mr. Weqad said. “It was for the good of the country. He believes that if his brother wins, then the entire country and world would think that the president has helped him, and will accuse Qayum of rigging the election as the president was accused in 2009.” -- In an interview with The Washington Post recently, Mr. Karzai openly acknowledged he was stepping in to prevent his brother from running. “That’s rather an interference, because I am denying the right of a citizen of Afghanistan to run for office, but I have to do it for the larger, bigger interest of Afghanistan,” he said -- While Mr. Karzai has not openly declared that he supports any particular candidate, most analysts are convinced that he backs Mr. Rassoul. In order to run, Mr. Rassoul had to quit his job as foreign minister, and did so after he was sure he had the president’s support. -. More, ROD NORDLAND, NYTimes, at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/06/world/asia/afghanistan-karzai-presidential-race.html?hp&_r=0