According to a U.S. government-funded poll released the week before the poll, the two leading contenders in the election were Hamid Karzai, the Pashtun incumbent, and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the former foreign minister with strong ties to the former Northern Alliance [REF].
Other instances of coercion in the electoral process - ranging from threatening phone calls to beatings and killings - by government agents (particularly security forces and armed factions aligned with certain candidates) have been extensively documented [REF].