Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah claimed victory yesterday 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 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.
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. 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 -- which said Ghani took 56.4 percent of the vote to Abdullah's 43.5 percent.
Any power grab would cost the country international aid, Washington said.
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 Ashraf Ghani's favour.
Independent Election Commission head Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani admitted on Monday there had been fraud by the security forces and senior government officials.