Abdullah to Boycott Afghan Run-off

Abdullah Abdullah was poised Saturday to boycott Afghanistan's run-off presidential election unless incumbent Hamid Karzai has a last minute change of heart and bows to a series of demands from his rival.

Officials in Abdullah's campaign team said the former foreign minister would announce he was pulling out of the November 7 contest on Sunday in the absence of any U-turn by Karzai on measures to combat fraud.

"If our conditions are not met today, Dr. Abdullah will announce his decision in a conference tomorrow (Sunday)," a senior official in his campaign team told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We will not participate in an election which is not transparent and fraud-free."

Following widespread fraud in the August first round, Abdullah has demanded Karzai sack the head of the Independent Electoral Commission and suspend four ministers who campaigned for the incumbent.

Asked what Abdullah's stance would be if his conditions are not met, a lawmaker involved in his campaign said the candidate would not take part in the run-off.

"As we have said in the past, we will not participate in an unsound process," Ahmad Bezad told AFP.

"If our conditions are not met and an election takes place on November 7, that will not be an election but a fraud trap and we will not go for a fraud trap, we will not participate."

Abdullah laid out his demands at a press conference on Monday but they received short shrift from both Karzai and Azizullah Ludin, the chairman of the IEC who was appointed by the president.

The IEC said Wednesday that Ludin could only be dismissed by the supreme court, while Karzai says Abdullah has no right to interfere in ministerial positions.

A source close to Karzai's camp said there had been talks between aides to the two men about Abdullah supporters being given a number of ministries in a national unity government after a run-off, but they had stalled.

"There were talks on the possibility of a power-sharing in some form. There were huge demands from Abdullah's side for several ministries, eight ministerial positions, which were not accepted by Karzai," the source said, while not ruling out an 11th hour breakthrough.

"It is an uncertain situation and a change of positions at the very last minute does not seem totally impossible."

Karzai's share of the vote in the first round fell to 49.67 percent after a UN-backed watchdog deemed around a quarter of all votes cast to be fraudulent.

Abdullah won just over 30 percent in the first round and has a mountain to climb if he is to overhaul Karzai in the run-off.

In an interview with CNN, the former US ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad predicted Abdullah would pull out of the contest as he lacked funds for campaigning and because he knew he would lose.

"I think that he thinks that, given the situation, he's likely to lose, and maybe he'll get less votes than he did in the first round, so that would be embarrassing," said Khalilzad.

As well as fears over fraud, the build-up to next Saturday's election is taking place against the backdrop of a raging Taliban insurgency.

The Islamists, whose ouster in late 2001 by a US-led coalition led to Karzai's coming to power, have promised to intensify their attacks in the wake of a deadly assault earlier this week on a UN guesthouse.

US President Barack Obama met military chiefs Friday to consider a request by his top commander in Afghanistan for tens of thousands more troops to fight the Taliban. There are already more than 100,000 US-led troops in the country.

No final decisions were taken at the talks but The Washington Post reported Obama had asked the Pentagon for more options on troop levels, including sending fewer than the roughly 40,000 new soldiers requested.