Abdullah rules out joining a Karzai government
AFP
WASHINGTON- Afghan presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah ruled out Friday joining Hamid Karzai's government should the incumbent beat him in the November 7 run-off election.
"I think I left Mr. Karzai's government some three and a half years ago, and since then I've not been tempted to be part of that government... part of the same deteriorating situation," the former foreign minister told CNN.
Abdullah also accused Karzai's government and Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) of having a hand in the fraud that tainted the first round poll and led to a run-off.
"Unfortunately, the government was involved, IEC was involved. That's according to everybody," charged Abdullah, who officially won 30.59 percent of the first round vote.
Karzai agreed to contest a run-off after more than one million ballots cast in the first August 20 vote were discounted due to fraud, leaving him short of the 50 percent required for outright victory.
Western leaders, led by US President Barack Obama, have praised Karzai's decision to concede to a run-off, but there are widespread concerns about repeating the perilous process with the Afghan winter fast approaching.
Afghanistan's IEC has said the vote run-up will begin in earnest on Saturday with the start of a 12-day campaign period until November 5 and the first distribution of electoral materials nationwide.
Obama, who ordered an extra 21,500 troops to Afghanistan in March, is considering a request from war commander General Stanley McChrystal for tens of thousands more soldiers to fight Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
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