On the side of a filthy, dust-blown road in Kabul it is business as normal for Ramazan Bashardost, the maverick politician who has electrified the closing stages of Afghanistan 's presidential election campaign. With just one day left until the national poll, and hours after a suicide car bomb ripped through another of Kabul's major thoroughfares, he has been busy meeting ordinary Afghans in his "national tent" – a dishevelled canvas structure, struggling to cope with demand.
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The tent, opposite the front gate of parliament and unprotected by blast barriers, is where the former planning minister, MP and presidential candidate meets those who come to him with their stories of how they have suffered at the hands of the country's rich, powerful and politically connected. His first words are to apologise for not being able to offer the normal tea and nuts afforded to visitors in most offices, but, he says, "If I did that, I would have to be corrupt to pay for it." While Bashardost has long been admired as one of the country's great political mavericks, famous for living a life of almost ascetic simplicity, his campaign for the top job in Afghan politics appears to have won him even more admirers. Despite being a member of the oppressed Hazara ethnic group, he has surged ahead in the polls, travelling the country in his beat-up car, campaigning in some of the country's most dangerous territories.
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The politician who could transform Afghan politics - guardian.co.uk