UNITED NATIONS - Talks between President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and challenger Abdullah Abdullah have broken down, and Abdullah is likely to pull out of next week’s presidential runoff, a person with knowledge of the talks said yesterday.
An announcement could come as early as today but more likely tomorrow, the person said.
Abdullah, who was once Karzai’s foreign minister, put forward several conditions earlier this week for the Nov. 7 election to be credible, but intensive talks between the two candidates and their supporters over the past few days broke down yesterday, the person, a Westerner, said on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.
The political stalemate in Kabul comes as President Barack Obama has been meeting with his advisers to try to determine US strategy in Afghanistan, including troop levels. A weakened Afghan government will make it harder for Obama to get public support for his efforts.
The runoff election in Afghanistan became necessary after widespread fraud in the first round of voting in August resulted in thousands of Karzai’s ballots being invalidated, pushing him below the required 50 percent margin to win. Concerns have been raised about a possible repetition of the ballot-box stuffing and distorted tallies in the second round.
Abdullah complained Monday that there were no assurances that the vote would be fairer than the first balloting.
