Taliban calls for Afghan election boycott
Updated on 24 October 2009
The Taliban threatens to disrupt next month's election run-off in Afghanistan as President Karzai and opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah begin campaigning.
Election officials are hastily trying to prepare for the 7 Nov run-off, which 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.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan once again urges their respected countrymen not to participate," the Taliban said in a statement saying the election process was being orchestrated by Washington.
"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 vote between President Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah.
Karzai agreed to the vote after coming under heavy international pressure.
A United Nations-backed fraud investigation invalidated thousands of his votes from the 20 Aug first round, pushing him below the 50 per cent mark needed to avoid a run-off against Abdullah, his former foreign minister.
The Taliban also had threatened to disrupt the first round but, despite sporadic attacks against candidates, election officials and polling stations, the Islamists failed to disrupt the process entirely.
Security fears nevertheless contributed to a low voter turnout and election officials have said they expect turnout to be even lower for the run-off.
The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, have strengthened their insurgency, with 2009 the deadliest year of the eight-year war.
Election officials have warned that Nato and Afghan security forces are not allowing themselves enough time to secure polling centres for the run-off.
The approach of Afghanistan's harsh winter, when much of the mountainous country becomes inaccessible, makes organising and conducting the new poll even more difficult.
