Karzai election rival ready for presidential run-off

President Hamid Karzai’s chief political rival agreed to run in the November 7 run-off election and said he’ll be ready.

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

It was Mr Abdullah’s first public comment since Mr Karzai bowed to US and international pressure and accepted findings of a UN-backed panel that there had been massive fraud on his behalf in the August 20 vote.

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