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Afghan contestent pulls out of run-off polls

By NNN-KUNA,

Kabul : Uncertainty prevailed over the political horizon of the war-battered Afghanistan as the second contender for the run off presidential polls Sunday announced he was not going to participate.

The “no” from Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, former foreign minister in Hamid Karzai’s cabinet, came during a big gathering of his supporters in Kabul on Sunday morning.

Thousands cheered as Abdullah arrived in the gathering where people were chanting slogans against the incumbent Afghan government.

The first deadline of Saturday evening set by Abdullah passed without any announcement thus extending the same to another day to put pressure on the beleaguered Afghan President Karzai who is on top in the run for the presidency of this war-battered country.

Addressing the gathering, Dr. Abdullah accused the Karzai government of large scale rigging and fraud in the August 20 elections.

He repeated his demand regarding removal of some key election commission officials and some ministers in Karzai’s cabinet.

Political analysts in Kabul are of the view that Abdullah Abdullah could not get victory against Hamid Karzai in a one on one contest and the boycott decision was to save his face following refusal of the presidential camp to give Abdullah share in the government.

Earlier, sources close to Abdullah told this news agency that he would easily agree to withdraw in support of Karzai provided the latter offered him a share in the next set up. However, the same was bluntly refused by Karzai.

In a statement on Saturday, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the boycott decision would not affect the run off polls.

Abdullah’s boycott had pushed the country into another political quagmire after getting out of the fraud allegations leveled by Dr. Abdullah and his camp against Karzai.

The imbroglio emerged following the decision of the Election Complaint Commission which invalidated votes at 210 polling stations on the complaint of Dr. Abdullah and his supports.

Approving the decision, the Afghanistan Independent Election Commission (AIEC) announced that second round of polls would be held on November 7. Under the election law, there will be second round of polls if none of the candidates for the slot of president managed to get more than 50 percent votes.

The law states that the second round will be held between the top candidate and the one who is following.

The results showed that Karzai had got 49 percent votes while his runner up Dr. Abdullah stayed behind with 28 percent.