Saying he believes the second round would be as fraudulent as the first, Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah on Sunday withdrew from the upcoming runoff election.

At an emotional news conference announcing his decision, Abdullah said, “I want this to be an example for the future so that no one again tries to use fraud to abuse the rights of the Afghan people.”

After he claimed victory in the first ballot in August, President Hamid Karzai agreed to the runoff set for Saturday. A review by a UN-backed panel of election monitors threw out nearly one-third of his votes, citing fraud. The result left Karzai short of the 50 percent-plus-one needed to avoid a runoff.

To avert electoral fraud in the runoff, Abdullah had called for the resignations of top election officials and politicians. The Karzai-appointed commissioners cannot be impartial, he argued.

But that request was not met, he said Sunday, and he did not believe a transparent election was possible.

(article and photo source: CNN)