Afghan commission: Karzai to stand in one-man election (Extra)

Nov 1, 2009, 13:06 GMT

Kabul - The Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) said Sunday that a planned runoff vote will go ahead with President Hamid Karzai standing as the sole candidate after his rival withdrew from the race.

Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah announced his withdrawal Sunday from the planned November 7 runoff election after his precondition that the head of IEC be dismissed was rejected by Karzai. Abdullah accused the IEC chief of being involved in engineering widespread fraud that marred the August 20 first-round presidential elections.

Abdullah's decision leaves Karzai as the only candidate, and casts doubt over the legitimacy of the incumbent's future administration.

'The election will go ahead as planned, because it is based on the constitution,' Noor Mohammad Noor, IEC spokesman said.

Neither Afghanistan's constitution nor its election laws anticipate the situation of a candidate pulling out of a runoff vote. Afghan and Western officials believe that the IEC or the Afghan Supreme Court will have to declare Karzai the winner unless another legal remedy is found.

The six-member IEC leadership is expected to hold a meeting on Monday to decide upon possible new proceedings in a second round, Noor said, but insisted that 'as of now, our stance is to go ahead with the second round of the elections.'