KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN)  -- Welcome to democracy, Afghan-style.



An Afghan woman in a burqa veil holds up a photograph of President Hamid Karzai.



An incumbent president and 38 challengers, including two women, are vying for the votes of 17 million registered Afghans against a backdrop of war, graft, poverty and illiteracy.



More than 3,000 donkeys, 3,000 cars and three helicopters will traverse harsh terrain to carry voting materials to remote polling stations. And 30 observer groups, domestic and international, will be on hand to help guard against fraud.



This Thursday, Afghanistan holds its second-ever popular election, the results of which will put into office a new president and 420 provincial council winners. Preliminary results are scheduled September 3, with final results expected two weeks later.



At the heart of every vote will be the two biggest impediments to progress for one of the poorest nations in the world: stifling corruption and an increasingly bloody Taliban resurgence.



The number of Afghan civilians killed increased 24 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to the United Nations. NATO and U.S. forces have suffered record losses this summer, with 75 troops killed in the month of July alone.



Amid the violence, the candidates continued their last-minute campaigning, with the hope that the elections can showcase Afghanistan's fledgling democracy.



"We hope that this election will go ahead in accordance with the constitution of this country and the rightful freedoms of our people, in the best manner possible, so that the Afghan nation can determine its future," said historian Omar Khan Massoudi, director of the National Museum in Kabul.  Watch young Afghans talk about their hopes »



International donors are helping pay for the $223 million undertaking, and hundreds of U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers have moved into southern Afghanistan to protect voters against possible Taliban attacks.



The top U.S. envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, expressed optimism that Thursday's vote would be Afghanistan's moment to shine. It's tough to organize elections during a war, he said, but the reality is that violence during elections is common place in many parts of the world.



"Afghanistan has never had a contested election," Holbrooke said. "So this is a remarkable experiment in democracy and something that Afghanistan needs to give legitimacy to the new government."



That legitimacy has become a key issue in the campaign. Frontrunner President Hamid Karzai's chief challengers -- former finance minister Ashraf Ghani and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah -- have both lashed out at the incumbent for failing to rein in corruption. In its annual global corruption perception index in 2008, Transparency International ranked Afghanistan 176 out of 180 countries and said graft was "a major factor impeding the country's stability and future growth."



Ghani told CNN the most significant challenge Afghanistan's next president faces is earning back the trust of the people.



"This government has lost it," he said in a recent interview. "There is no sense of trust, not only in the current leadership, but in the political class as such. And in the capacity of the state or the international community to improve the lot of our people."



Ghani characterized Karzai as a "very poor manager" who failed to deal with pressing issues and create any sense of momentum for the nation moving forward. As a guest on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS earlier this month, Ghani said Afghanistan's corruption had become a cancer that was "eating through the society."



Babrak Babarkhale, a former journalist and Mujahadeen fighter in the war to end Soviet occupation in the 1980s, said he planned to vote for Abdullah because he was fed up with corruption.



"We want to support Dr. Abdullah Abdullah to be our future president, to take all Afghans out of this corruption, away from this weak government," he said.



Abdullah argued that people's dissatisfaction with the Karzai government has helped strengthen the insurgency.



"There is no doubt there is a hardcore element in it," he told CNN. "But there are thousands
how many Afghans are registered to vote? what is  scheduled amid increasing violence? What is a key issue for voters? what is the key issue? How many Afghans can vote?
17 million Afghanistan holds its second-ever popular election, stifling corruption legitimacy 17 million
question: how many Afghans are registered to vote?, answer: 17 million | question: what is  scheduled amid increasing violence?, answer: Afghanistan holds its second-ever popular election, | question: What is a key issue for voters?, answer: stifling corruption | question: what is the key issue?, answer: legitimacy | question: How many Afghans can vote?, answer: 17 million