YASENI DISCUSSES PLATFORM, ASKS FOR CAMPAIGN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 001738 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/1/2019 TAGS: KDEM PGOV AF SUBJECT: YASENI DISCUSSES PLATFORM, ASKS FOR CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS REF: KABUL 1640 Classified By: Classified by Political Counselor Alan Yu for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) At a June 27 dinner between presidential candidate and Lower House Deputy Speaker Mirwais Yaseni, Ambassador Carney and SRAP's Jane Marriott, Yaseni laid out reasons for running and his platform. He repeatedly mentioned his lack of funding and asked for United States financial support for his campaign. Overall, Yaseni appeared to lack confidence that he could truly lead a united ticket and/or win; but he was confident that if he dropped out, his Pashtun votes would go to Karzai, not Ghani or Abdullah. -------------- Forced to Run -------------- ¶2. (C) Yaseni told Carney that he is standing for the presidency because he feels that though he had no choice due to the lack of a decent candidate he could support. He presented the options available as joining President Karzai's team ) he said that Karzai offered him the top position at various ministries and USD 600,000 to set up and run Karzai's campaign offices, to step down - going into self-exile, or supporting a decent candidate. Due to the lack of a candidate worthy of his support, the only logical choice left was to run for president himself. To that end, he gave up his UK citizenship on May 7. -------------- Platforms and Campaign Strategy -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Yaseni repeated themes from his June 22 meeting and press conference with the Ambassador (ref A),reiterating his focus on female voters and youth. His campaign manager for women, MP Najiba Sharif, who dropped in on the meeting, noted that she is targeting all women, regardless of education level, through radios, brochures, mobile phones and hosting shuras. Yaseni claimed to have met with over 3000 people that day, including student leaders. Using tactics such as having supporters knock on doors and making cold-calls, he hoped to recruit sufficient candidate agents to allow placement of them as observers in each of the nearly 7,000 polling sites. ¶4. (SBU) Yaseni asserted that a legitimate election would not result in a Karzai victory; assessing that the &top three8 candidates are now himself, Karzai and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, with Ghani no longer commanding sufficient support for the ranking. He claimed to have greatly increased his name recognition over the past three months and that he is now &neck-to-neck8 with Abdullah in the north. ¶5. (SBU) Yaseni assessed that Pakistan would accept him as president, although Iran did not like him. He predicted that Ghani and Abdullah would not win if the election went to a second round: the Pashtuns would not vote for Abdullah; the north wouldn't vote for Ghani. The only winning scenario would have to put Yaseni at the head of the Yaseni-Ghani-Abdullah ticket against Karzai. Yaseni suggested that with the current field of candidates, the election will go to a second-round, unless Yaseni himself is forced to drop out of the race due to lack of funding, Karzai would then score a first round victory. In Yaseni's government, he pictured Ghani in charge of finance, transport and trade, Abdullah leading in foreign affairs and retaining control of security ministries for himself. -------------- Searching for Funding & Support -------------- ¶6. (C) Yaseni commented often on his lack of funding and criticized Karzai in the realm of campaign finance, saying the president had access to suitcases of cash from Iran and support from India. He also noted that Abdullah has reportedly given each of his provincial offices USD 500,000. In contrast Yaseni reported selling his second house in order to support USD 1.7 million of campaign related spending over the last three months. Yaseni noted that his campaign is receiving donations, including from businesses, but that these were of the USD 50-100 variety and insufficient to support his campaign. ¶7. (C) When asked about international offers to fund transportation, Yaseni said that he could do that himself if needed and didn't find the proposal helpful. However, he welcomed possible funding to print brochures, cards with his photo or symbol or a cash infusion for his campaign. Yaseni KABUL 00001738 002 OF 002 would welcome future opportunities such as his earlier press conference attendance with Ambassador Eikenberry. EIKENBERRY