After the fall of the Taliban, Hamid Karzai's ascension as Afghanistan's interim president was all but assured, as he was the only surviving leader from the country's ethnic Pashtun majority in Afghanistan at the time. His only competition, the veteran mujahideen commander Abdul Haq, was captured and executed by the Taliban on Oct. 26, 2001. A representative of an Afghan tribe listens to speakers at a meeting for Afghan unity on Oct. 24, 2001 in Peshawar, Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan.
The 2009 election was plagued by allegations of fraud on Karzai's part and deepened the president's fears that the U.S. government was trying to unseat him. Afghan children lean over a wall with a torn poster of Karzai as they watch the Afghan president's supporters celebrate in the streets of Kabul on Nov. 4, 2009.
An Afghan villager grabs election materials delivered via helicopter in the village of Pajwar in Badakhshan province, along the Tajikistan border, on Nov. 1, 2009. The controversial election led to the resignation of U.N. Deputy Envoy Peter W. Galbraith, who accused Karzai of stuffing ballot boxes in remote corners of his country.
