2009: an election year

Next year will be an election year. Though it now looks unlikely that Gordon Brown will call a general election, both local and European elections are scheduled for June 2009. These will undoubtedly be important, as a test of both how people feel about the government’s handling of the economic crisis and their views on the Lisbon Treaty, which the Irish are likely to have voted on again.

But a number of elections held overseas next year will have a much greater impact on Britain’s security and wellbeing than any of these polls.

The most important election is that of a new Afghan president in late 2009. The poll will be the second vote for the presidency in Afghanistan‘s history. The first was in 2004, when Hamid Karzai won a five-year term. President Karzai, whose government relies on international funds and troops, is the only significant figure to declare his candidacy so far, and the consensus is that –  despite his failings and growing unpopularity – he would be tough to beat.