Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah claimed victory today in Afghanistan's disputed election, blaming fraud for putting him behind in preliminary results as fears rise of instability and ethnic unrest.
Abdullah told a rally of thousands of rowdy supporters in Kabul that he would fight on to win the presidency, but he called for patience from loyalists who demanded he declare a "parallel government" to rule the country.
"We are proud, we respect the votes of the people, we were the winner," Abdullah said. "Without any doubt or hesitation, we will not accept a fraudulent result, not today, not tomorrow, never."
Before he spoke, a huge photograph of President Hamid Karzai was ripped down from the stage -- underlining the boiling anger among many of Abdullah's supporters after the preliminary result in favour of poll rival Ashraf Ghani.
The election stand-off has sparked concern that protests could spiral into ethnic violence and even lead to a return to the fighting between warlords that ravaged Afghanistan during the 1992-1996 civil war.
But Abdullah called for the country to remain unified as it faces a difficult transfer of power, after Karzai's 13-year rule ends and as 50,000 US-led troops wind down their battle against Taliban insurgents.
"We don't want partition of Afghanistan, we want to preserve national unity and the dignity of Afghanistan," he said. "We don't want civil war. We want stability, not division."
Earlier, the United States issued a strong warning to Abdullah over reports that he would form a "parallel government" in defiance of the results from the run-off election -- which said Ghani took 56.4 per cent of the vote to Abdullah's 43.5 per cent.
In the eight-man first-round election on April 5, Abdullah was far ahead with 45 per cent against Ghani's 31.6 per cent.
Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from a third term in office, has stayed publicly neutral in the lengthy election, but Abdullah supporters accuse him of fixing the vote in Ghani's favour.
Turnout on June 14 was more than eight million out of an estimated electorate of 13.5 million, far higher than expected -- fuelling fierce arguments about fraud from both sides.
Independent Election Commission head Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani announced the results of the run-off vote yesterday, admitting there had been fraud by the security forces and senior government officials.
Nuristani emphasised that the results would now be subject to auditing and adjudication of complaints, before the official result is released on about July 24.
