Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah insisted Monday that he won the country's disputed election, dimming hopes that a power-sharing deal could soon be agreed to end the prolonged political crisis. Abdullah repeated claims that massive ballot-rigging had denied him victory over his rival Ashraf Ghani in the race to lead Afghanistan as US-led Nato troops withdraw from their long war against Taliban insurgents.
The bitter stalemate over alleged fraud in the June 14 vote has raised fears of renewed ethnic violence as the 13-year international military and civilian development effort winds down. "We were the winner of the elections, we are the winner of elections based on the real and clean votes of the people," Abdullah said in a speech, his voice choking with emotion.
"We do not accept fraudulent election results, and we will not accept a fraudulent government for one day." In a deal brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, the feuding candidates had agreed to a UN-supervised audit of all eight million votes, and to form a national unity government together whoever emerged as winner.
But Abdullah, who was far behind Ghani in preliminary results from the runoff vote, has pulled out of the audit and negotiations on the unity government have also ground to a halt. "The election turned into a disaster because of election commission treason, which the government was also a part of," Abdullah said. "The commission was not interested in revealing fraud, because it was part of it. "Today the political process has reached a deadlock."
The United Nations had said that the audit results would be finalised this week and the delayed inauguration held soon thereafter, though Abdullah's stance threw that timetable further into doubt. Afghan politics has been in virtual paralysis since election campaigning began in February, with outgoing President Hamid Karzai admitting the impasse over results was damaging the country's fragile security and economy.
Street protests by loyalists from either team risk spilling into violence because Abdullah draws his support from Tajiks and other northern Afghan groups, while Ghani is backed by Pashtun tribes of the south and east. Abdullah was careful on Monday to avoid calling for protests by his supporters, some of whom have urged him to form a "parallel government" unless he wins power. "We were never pro-violence in any phase, we do not foster violence and we do not accept violence," he stressed.
A failed election would seriously imperil Nato support and the other aid on which Afghanistan relies, as well as dashing hopes that democracy would be a legacy of the costly US-led intervention since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Karzai, whose successor was first due to be inaugurated on August 2, has stayed publicly neutral in the election and is constitutionally barred from standing for a third term in office. Ghani's camp made no immediate response to Abdullah's speech, but it believes it has won the audit and that Abdullah is asking for too much power in the planned national unity government.