Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah threatened on Tuesday to withdraw from an audit of votes cast in the election, a move that could wreck UN efforts to rescue the country’s first democratic transfer of power.
The June 14 election triggered a tense standoff between Abdullah and his poll rival Ashraf Ghani, with both candidates claiming victory amid allegations of massive fraud.
To end the impasse, a deal was brokered for an audit of all eight million votes to remove fraudulent ballots, and for the formation of a national unity government under whoever becomes the next president.
But with the audit entering its final stages, Abdullah’s campaign team ignored pleas from the United Nations and the United States to allow the process to finish and then to respect the final outcome.
“If they accept our demands by tomorrow morning we will continue the process. If not, we will withdraw from the process and consider it finished,” Fazel Ahmad Manawi, a senior member of Abdullah’s campaign team, told reporters.
“Such a process is not acceptable for us and has no value.” He said Abdullah’s demands over how fraudulent votes should be thrown out had been ignored.
Abdullah won the eight-candidate first-round election in April, but preliminary results in the June run-off vote showed he had fallen well behind Ghani.
On Monday the invalidation stage of the audit finally began — but Manawi dismissed it as “a joke”.
“We boycotted the audit once or twice and they asked us to come back, but they have never listened to our demands,” he said.
The country has been in paralysis for months due to the election to choose the successor to President Hamid Karzai, who will step down as US-led NATO troops prepare to end their 13-year war against Taliban insurgents.
All-rounder Mohammad Hafeez bowled a brilliant spell in the power-play overs (36-40) claiming three wickets for a mere five runs to check Sri Lanka’s progress after a bright start. Hafeez got rid of the dangerous Mahela Jayawardene (67), Seekkuge Prasanna (1) and Ashan Priyanjan (3) as the hosts slumped from 184 for three to 194 for six; Jayawardene had added 122 runs for the fourth wicket.
Pakistan was the better placed side after 40 overs with the scoreboard reading 209 for six. At this juncture Mathews (93) and Perera (65 off 36) pummelled the undisciplined Pakistan pace trio of Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan and Wahab Riaz to add 101 runs in the 10 overs of their batting stint.
Perera especially took heavy toll on the left-arm pacers smashing four sixes and five fours in his whirlwind cameo. Junaid who had a rough outing in the first match had another forgetful afternoon conceding 64 runs in only eight overs.
Irfan went for 65 runs in his 10 over quota, his last over leaked 19 runs. Wahab picked four expensive wickets conceding 65 runs also in his 10 overs.
Perera’s stand with Mathews yielded 87 runs in only 45 balls.
The visitors who brought in Sharjeel Khan in place of Younus Khan who flew home following the death of his nephew would be pinning hopes on their seven frontline batsmen and the power of Shahid Afridi.
