London: Accusing President Hamid Karzai
of staging "state engineered fraud", his main challenger in
Afghanistan's presidential elections Abdullah Abdullah has
said that this amounted to worse than a crime.
"The massive vote rigging in last month's elections is
worse than a crime, it's treason," Abdullah told The Times.
"Karzai doesn't think about the country, he thinks
only of himself. He has been caught red-handed," he said.
Abdullah said, "what's at stake is Afghanistan, the
future of this country. The country will die because of this
sort of thing. Fraud is the extension of this corruption which
prevailed in this system."
Abdullah, a former Foreign Minister, is trailing
Karzai in partial results published by the Independent
Elections Commission, an organisation that he claims is under
the control of the President's supporters.
A UN-backed elections watchdog ordered the IEC to
begin a massive recount of votes last week, saying that it had
unearthed "clear and convincing evidence of fraud".
Although Karzai narrowly passed the 50 per cent
threshold that would allow him to avoid a run-off, the recount
could push his support below the 50 per cent level and force
the country to have a vote for a second time.
Abdullah admitted that although an investigation is
required, there is at present no independent judiciary to take
up the task. His allegations have been backed up by
international election monitors, who cited numerous witness
testimonies.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, September 14, 2009, 17:55