Ramazan Bashardost
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 Ramazan Bashardost is a candidate in the 2009 Afghanistan presidential election, and a member of the Afghan parliament. He is of the Hazara people, but is campaigning as a representative of the entire Afghan people, arguing against warlord and ethnic politics. Originally thought to be a symbolic candidate, recent polls show him in 3rd place, ahead of Ashraf Ghani. [1] He earned three master’s degrees and a doctorate in political science at the University of Toulouse in 1995. After the Taliban were overthrown, he took a diplomatic post at the Afghan Embassy in Paris, where he had been educated and in 2003 returned home to head the European Affairs Department at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. [2] In 2004, he was planning minister in the government of Hamid Karzai. He was highly critical of non-governmental organizations, saying the "majority of them were a source of Afghanistan money drain. He particularly highlighted the hefty amounts paid to the NGO employees and ministers as compared to the average income of less than a dollar average national income." He resigned over this issue. Presenting himself as a populist, he lives in a tent next to Parliament, and drives a rusting Suzuki "frequently compared to the Mini driven by Mr Bean, a character much loved in Afghanistan". [3] He did win election to Parliament by a large margin. Some media have called him "Afghanistan's Gandhi", for "his personal integrity, his ascetic style, and inclusive message." He travels without bodyguards; speaking from Tarin Kowt in Uruzgan Province, an area considered dangerous, about which he said "When I travel to the provinces, I personally do not feel insecure. I haven't done anything wrong. I haven't spilled the blood of Afghan people and have neither taken their land by force."[4] References
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