Updated on Sunday, November 01, 2009, 23:06 IST Tags:

Kabul: Afghanistan's run-off election will take place as scheduled this week despite the withdrawal of President Hamid Karzai's only challenger, the election commission said on Sunday.

"The deadline to withdraw has passed, therefore the commission is determined to conduct a run-off election," the government-appointed Independent Election Commission's chief electoral officer, Daoud Ali Najafi, told a news agency.

"We'll go for a run-off as scheduled," Najafi added.

Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah said he would not participate in the November 7 vote, but when asked, Najafi said the commission would still be counting his votes.

"Yes, just as we did in the first round when candidates pulled out after the timetable given for them to announce their withdrawal. Their votes were counted," he said.

Abdullah has been fiercely critical of the IEC, which is seen as pro-Karzai, citing the president's refusal to sack the commission's chairman Azizullah Ludin as one of the reasons for his withdrawal.

The first round of the election on August 20 was tainted by widespread fraud which eventually saw around a quarter of all votes declared invalid after a probe by a UN-backed watchdog.

Bureau Report