Afghan election challenger steps down before runoff

Abdullah Abdullah, challenger to incumbent President Hamid Karzai in this year’s election in Afghanistan, has announced that he will no longer be participating in next Saturday’s run-off election, alleging further fraud on the part of the Independent Election Commission.

The true identity of Afghanistan’s president-elect has been a mystery since the first round of voting this August, when reports of election fraud were so rampant that more than 1 million votes were thrown out.

“It was a hard decision and a painful decision for me, but I did it,” Abdullah told the BBC. “I thought that it would be in the best interests of the country if I decide not to participate.”

It remains to be seen how Abdullah’s decision will affect the run-off election process, as Karzai now runs uncontested. Election officials say the vote will go on as planned, the legitimacy of which, analysts say, will depend on voter turnout.

Abdullah did not call for a boycott or ask his supporters not to vote, nor did he seek confrontation with Karzai.

Ousted Honduran president asks congress to allow re-entry

Manual Zelaya, the ex-president of Honduras who was ousted on June 28, is asking his congress to approve a deal that will allow him to return to power after four months of hiding in a Brazilian embassy.

Zelaya was removed from power this summer after critics accused him of trying to amend Honduras’ constitution to allow him to run for a second term. The country has been locked in a political crisis ever since.

“If the national congress decides to maintain the coup, the crisis will continue,” Zelaya told Al Jazeera. “If the congress reverses the coup, the crisis will be over.”

Roberto Michiletti, Honduras’ interim president, already signed off on a deal that would allow Zelaya to return to power before the elections at the end of the month, but there has been no timetable set for when congress would vote to approve it. In fact, a representative of the de facto government has already suggested that congress would not vote on it before the elections.

Zelaya has said that he refuses to leave the embassy in Tegucigalpa until every word of the agreement has been concretely agreed on.

South Sudan president presses on independence

Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, said in a speech on Sunday that everyone who wishes to be “a free person, in [his/her] own independent state” needs to register to vote for the April 2010 elections and vote for South Sudan’s independence.

“When you reach your ballot boxes, the choice is yours,” Kiir told the congregation at a Catholic church, where his speech took place. “You would want to vote for independence, so that you are a free person, in your independent state. That will be your own choice, and we will respect the choice of the people.”

Kiir’s speech was timed to coincide with the beginning of voter registration in the country. His remarks were a break from protocol in the country, where leaders in the North and South have had an agreement to try and make a unified country an appealing choice for voters.

The two governments have been hammering out the details of the January 2011 referendum on independence or unity since 2005, when Sudan’s civil war ended with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Reach columnist Morgan Gard at news@dailyuw.com.