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| Afghanistan |
| Abdullah threatens Afghan vote audit boycott |
| 2014-08-27 |
| [ARABNEWS] One of the two men vying to become Afghanistan's next president is threatening to boycott a ballot audit from the country's disputed presidential runoff, his adviser said Tuesday, a development that could further disrupt the already troubled process. The complicated, UN-supervised audit of the 8 million votes from the June presidential runoff has been underway in Kabul for weeks. The process followed allegations of vote fraud on both sides and is meant to decide whether Abdullah Abdullah ... the former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance government, advisor to Masood, and candidate for president against Karzai. Dr. Abdullah was born in Kabul and is half Tadjik and half Pashtun... , a former foreign minister, or former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai will replace President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... . Abdullah is apparently concerned that the audit has allegedly failed to invalidate a sufficient number of ballots so far that would correspond to the level of vote fraud his team claims has taken place. A top adviser for Abdullah told news hounds on Tuesday that if Abdullah's concerns are not addressed by Wednesday morning, he will pull out of the audit. "If our demands are not accepted, we will announce the end of this process," said Fazel Ahmad Manawi. "This process will not be acceptable to us and the result will not have any value." Manawi said the election commission ignored their complaints about fraudulent ballots. If the recount is halted, it would create another major political stalemate for Afghanistan. Karzai has said the new president should be sworn in on Sept. 2. Karzai's successor is also expected to attend a NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... summit to be held next week. The lack of new president has also held up the signing of a security agreement between the US and Afghanistan. |
| Posted by:Fred |