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UN secretary-general arrives in Afghanistan

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-11-02 16:50

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah speaks during a gathering with his supporters in Kabul November 1, 2009. Abdullah quit an election run-off on Sunday after accusing the government of not meeting his demands for a fair vote, but said he was not calling for a boycott. [Agencies]

KABUL: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Monday for talks with President Hamid Karzai and his political rival a day after the challenger withdrew from next week's runoff election.

International diplomats are driving for a quick resolution to the country's troubled election after former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the two-man race Sunday.

Abdullah's withdrawal effectively handed Karzai a victory, but it is still unclear if the vote will go forward Saturday as scheduled. The two had been in talks about a power-sharing deal, and negotiations may still be going on. Abdullah chose not to boycott the vote, a conciliatory move that could mean he is still hoping for a deal.

Ban will meet with the two men "to assure them and the Afghan people of the continuing support of the United Nations toward the development of the country," the statement said.

A deadly attack on a Kabul guest house with UN election workers last week has raised questions about whether the UN might scale back in Afghanistan. Militants stormed the compound before dawn, killing five UN staffers and three Afghans.

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The UN kept operating after an August 2003 truck bombing at its headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 22 people, including mission chief Sergio Vieira de Mello, but after a second bombing it shut down operations in Iraq in late October 2003 for years.

Ban will also meet with UN staff and security officials, the statement said.

Taliban threats of more violence and the difficulty of organizing and securing the balloting mean that officials are likely looking for a way to end the process without sending people back to the polls this week.

Karzai has said the runoff should go forward as planned, but there is no clear article in Afghanistan's constitution or electoral law to address the situation. The chairman of the Independent Election Commission, Azizullah Lodin, said Sunday that he would have to meet with constitutional lawyers before deciding how to proceed.

Repeated calls to election officials on Monday were not returned.

It has been more than a month since the Aug. 20 balloting that aimed to strengthen the Afghan government but instead undermined its credibility both at home and with key allies like the United States.

The vote was characterized by rampant ballot-box stuffing, and fraud investigators threw out nearly a third of Karzai's votes. That move dropped Karzai below the 50 percent threshold needed to win outright, forcing the runoff vote.

A bevy of international figures, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, were involved in convincing Karzai to accept the runoff vote.

UN and US representatives were still involved in negotiations with the two about a power-sharing deal as recently as Sunday morning, according to a Western diplomat who was familiar with the talks but spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the discussions.