Karzai's rival withdraws from Afghan runoff

• Source: Global Times
• [01:06 November 02 2009]
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Afghan opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah speaks during a gathering in Kabul Monday. Photo: AFP

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah said Monday that he was withdrawing from an election runoff because the demands he made for a fair vote had not been met by the government and election officials, according to Reuters.

"I will not take part in the election. ... I have not come to this decision easily," Abdullah told supporters in Kabul, adding that he was not telling anyone to boycott the November 7 polling.

A spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said that the president regrets Abdullah's withdrawal but the election should still take place.

"We believe that the election has to go on; the process must complete itself," Karzai's chief campaign spokesman, Waheed Omar, told Al-Jazeera television. "The people of Afghanistan have to be given the right to vote."

However, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) later said that the presidential run-off will take place as scheduled.

"The deadline to withdraw has passed, therefore the commission is determined to conduct a runoff election," IEC Chief Electoral Officer Daoud Ali Najafi told reporters.

Pressure had been growing on Abdullah to pull out of the contest against Karzai, seen by analysts as the favorite to win the runoff after getting the most votes in the fraud-marred first round August 20.