KABUL, Oct 24 (Reuters) - The Taliban on Saturday called on Afghans to boycott next month's presidential election run-off and vowed to disrupt voting in a repeat of their threat to derail the disputed first round.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan once again urges their respected countrymen not to participate,” the Taliban said in a statement, emailed to Reuters, saying the election process was being orchestrated by Washington.
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| An Afghan policeman keeps watch atop a police vehicle at a checkpoint in downtown Kabul October 23, 2009. REUTERS |
“In order to make this process fail all the mujahideens will carry out operations on the enemy's centres,” it said of the thousands of polling stations to be set up for the Nov. 7 vote between President Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah.
This week's announcement of the run-off removed one stumbling block for U.S. President Barack Obama as he weighs whether to send more troops to Afghanistan to fight a resurgent Taliban.
Election officials are busily trying to prepare for the new vote, called after heavy international pressure, as Afghanistan's harsh winter approaches.
A U.N.-backed fraud investigation invalidated thousands of Karzai's votes from the Aug. 20 first round, pushing him below the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a run-off against Abdullah, his former foreign minister.
The Taliban, who were overthrown by U.S. and Afghan-led forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, also threatened to disrupt the first round. |
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