President Karzai Meets with Abdullah ‘Abdullah’
KABUL: (MEP) – Recently Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a Presidential candidate and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, met with President Hamid Karzai on Saturday to discuss issues related to the spring elections.
Dr. Abdullah was one of the 10 Presidential candidates who made the Independent Election Commission’s (IEC) preliminary list of eligible contenders released on Tuesday. He received the highest amount of support amongst all the candidates in a nationwide phone survey conducted in coordination between TOLO news and ATR Consulting two weeks ago, Tolo reported.
“The reason for the meeting was to discuss issues related to the election,” Dr. Abdullah told TOLOnews
The two men met at the Presidential Palace in Kabul, accompanied by Dr. Abdullah’s vice presidential running mates, Eng Mohammad Khan and Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq.
Dr. Abdullah, who competed in the 2009 Presidential election, reportedly urged President Karzai to focus greater resources to providing security for the election and vigilence in preserving the autonomy of the IEC and Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), which are the two bodies charged with overseeing the election process and implementing the Election Laws.
“President Karzai welcomed our position and assured that he would not back any candidates and the government would be completely impartial,” he said.
The meeting was said to have been held at the request of Dr. Abdullah.
Whether or not other Presidential candidates intend to hold similar sit-downs with the President remains to be seen.
