Karzai Nixes Power-Sharing Government

Abdullah says result will be same without new election officials
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 25, 2009 8:10 AM CDT
Karzai Nixes Power-Sharing Government
A campaign poster of President Hamid Karzai is seen on a stand as campaign spokesman, Waheed Omar, third from right, speaks in Kabul on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009.   (AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Both candidates for Afghanistan's presidency focused on the Nov. 7 runoff yesterday, with Hamid Karzai declaring that there would be no power-sharing government, while challenger Abdullah Abdullah voiced concern that without the ouster of top election officials, the tainted outcome would be no different. "So long as these people are not being removed from the commission, I don't think we are going to have a free and fair election," said an Abdullah supporter.

Election officials will reduce the 6,300 polling places by 500 in order to reduce fraud, but many experts expect that to achieve little in a vote expected to be complicated yet further by extreme weather. Also jumping into the fray was the Taliban, declaring the runoff "a failed, American process," and promising further violence to would-be voters.
(More Taliban stories.)

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