Afghanistan poll: Kerry warns Abdullah over parallel govt plan

Presidential palace asks IEC to audit the ballot transparently.

KABAL: The United States warned on Tuesday that it would withdraw financial and security support from Afghanistan if anyone tried to take power illegally, as supporters of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah rallied in Kabul for a parallel government.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said there was no justification for violence or “extra-constitutional measures”. “I have noted reports of protests in Afghanistan and of suggestions of a ‘parallel government’ with the gravest concern,” he said in a statement issued by the US Embassy.

“Any action to take power by extra-legal means will cost Afghanistan the financial and security support of the United States and the international community.”

Kerry also said he would visit Kabul on Friday.

Hours earlier, thousands of Abdullah’s supporters gathered in Kabul, demanding that he form a parallel government.

Abdullah’s rejection

Dr Abdullah announced at a gathering of his supporters in Kabul that he would not accept the result of the June 14 polls.

Shortly after Abdullah’s aggressive posture, Karzai’s palace issued a statement, asking both candidates to cooperate with the two electoral commissions. He asked the Independent Election Commission to audit the ballot transparently.

Four NATO troops killed

At least four Nato servicemen were killed in an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the International Security Assistance Force said. Earlier, Ziaul Rahman Sayedkhili, a senior police officer in the province of Parwan, said the death toll included six Nato soldiers, 10 Afghan civilians and two Afghan policemen.

Security pact

Nato’s chief warned that, despite a disputed election, Afghanistan must sign a security pact on a post-combat international training mission by September, or there will be “severe” problems for the Western alliance.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2014.