Afghan runner-up lists election conditions
Abdullah Abdullah has set out a list of “minimal” conditions that he says must be met if the run-off presidential election between him and Hamid Karzai is to be perceived as fair.
Mr. Abdullah, a former foreign minister, called reporters to his home in Kabul on Monday afternoon to list the actions that he says must be taken to prevent the sort of fraud that was widespread during the first vote in August. “In order to avoid the same sort of election with the same sort of results,” he said, “we have worked out a set of measures and conditions for the sake of transparency and the dignity of the elections.”
They include the firing of the head of the Independent Election Commission as well as three ministers in Mr. Karzai’s cabinet and a number of technical requirements primarily intended to ensure there is no tampering with ballots.
Mr. Abdullah said he would suspend links with the election commission until the conditions are met and gave the government until Oct. 31 to meet his demands. He would not say what he would do if he is ignored. “These are not impossible things,” he said when asked if he would boycott the election. “I reserve my reaction if we were faced with that unfortunate situation that these conditions are not met.”
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Male, retired and the rest is of little interest to anyone. The site keeps me busy and if it helps others to stay abreast of daily events then my time is well spent.
Mac Says:
I expect there’ll be scrutiny of this run-off election at the ballot box so Karzai and Co will have to do their dirty work away from the polls.
Posted on October 26th, 2009 at 9:55 pm