Abdullah vows to improve Afghan

AFP

WASHINGTON: Afghan presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah said Monday his decision to withdraw from this week's runoff vote was "painful" but vowed to keep working to improve the plight of his country.

"This has been a painful decision after almost six months of campaigning and promoting ideas for change," Abdullah told National Public Radio.

He said he would continue to promote the ideas he campaigned on, including "betterment of the lives of the people of Afghanistan."

"I'll be involved. I don't want to miss this opportunity for my country, for my nation," he said in an interview broadcast as Afghan President Hamid Karzai was declared winner of the runoff, after an election commission scrapped the planned ballot following Abdullah's withdrawal.

Abdullah, who earned just over 30 percent in the first round election voting, said he pulled out of the second round amid concerns of a repeat of the massive fraud and vote-rigging that marred earlier balloting.

"I made some conditions for the transparency of the elections for the next round, and then of course those conditions were not met, and then finally I decided not to participate," he told the US-based radio.

The former foreign minister said he planned to work actively for the reform of institutions in Afghanistan, including the independence of the Afghanistan's election commission and of the country's judiciary.

"I'll fight for it," he said.

"I'll consider this as the last chance for Afghanistan," Abdullah added, "not just this election, but I mean the fact that the international community has been helping Afghanistan, so that Afghanistan will be a better place," he said.

Abdullah added: "The future of Afghanistan will be either a moderate, Islamic country based on democratic principles" or a "Taliban-type, Al-Qaeda-type" of regime which will reverse the course of progress.

With respect to cooperation with President Karzai, "I've not been in touch with him for the past few days" said Abdullah.

"I'll be willing to contact him to promote those ideas," he added.

An election commission last month found that about a quarter of all votes cast in the first round of balloting in Afghanistan were fraudulent.

Revised results showed that Karzai fell just below the 50 percent threshold needed for an outright election victory in the first round.