Karzai Rival Accepts Afghan Runoff Vote

Updated at 3:44 a.m. Eastern:

President Hamid Karzai's chief political rival is agreeing to run in the Nov. 7 run-off election and says he'll be ready.

Abdullah Abdullah told reporters Wednesday that he telephoned Karzai to thank him for agreeing to a second round ballot.

"We are completely ready for the second round," Abdullah said, calling on Afghan officials to organize a "free, fair and credible election" with enough security encourage people to turn out and vote.

It was Abdulllah's first public comment since Karzai bowed to U.S. and international pressure and accepted findings of a U.N.-backed panel that there had been massive fraud on his behalf in the Aug. 20 vote.

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Those findings showed Karzai failed to win the 50 per cent required to avoid a run-off.

Karzai said Tuesday that the final results showing the need for a runoff were "legitimate, legal and according to the constitution of Afghanistan."

The Afghan leader spoke at a press conference alongside U.S. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the head of the U.N. in Afghanistan, Kai Eide - a sign of the intense international pressure which preceded the announcement.

Karzai and Kerry were in talks as late as Tuesday afternoon, suggesting that up until the last moment there was a chance he would return to insisting on a first-round victory.

President Obama welcomed Karzai's willingness to run in a new election against Abdullah, saying his decision "established an important precedent for Afghanistan's new democracy."

Abdullah's declaration sets the stage for an election that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said would be a "huge challenge" to pull off without repeating the widespread fraud that marred the first-round balloting.

Karzai's capitulation Tuesday was a relief to American officials and averted a constitutional crisis. But new balloting carries with it the risk of low turnout or another round of wholesale ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation.

That would bring the Obama administration no closer to its goal of a credible, legitimate Afghan government necessary to win public support in the U.S. for the war in Afghanistan and reverse the Taliban rise.

If the election goes relatively well, it's unclear that a second-round win by Karzai, widely considered the favorite, would erase the stain brought on his leadership by widespread fraud in the first balloting Aug. 20.

Holding the poll as the country enters its cold season poses additional challenges, both for transporting ballots and drawing voters. U.S. and Afghan forces also must provide security to prevent a repeat of Taliban attacks in August that killed dozens.

In some areas, militants cut off the ink-marked fingers of people who had voted.

During his news conference, Abdullah said he hoped the November election would take place on time and "under good circumstances."

"We need to have measures in place in order to avoid a repetition" of the August fraud, he said.

Abdullah said voters in parts of the country under Taliban threat will be risking their lives to cast ballots "and they should be confident that the risk is worthwhile."