Afghan poll panel performance illegal: Abdullah

Afghanistan presidential poll candidate Abdullah Abdullah Thursday termed the performance of the country's Election Commission as illegal, saying its decisions will be unacceptable.

"Since we have doubt over the impartiality of the Election Commission, we demanded the suspension of the job of Ziaul Haq Omarkhil, the chief of Election Commission secretariat. But our demand has been ignored, and that is why today I am announcing that the performances and the decisions of the Election Commission will not be acceptable for us," Abdullah said at a press conference here.

He warned that "fraudulent elections will take the country towards crisis, and in this case the president and the Election Commission would be responsible", Xinhua reported Abdullah as saying.

Abdullah, who secured 45 percent of some seven million votes in the first round of April 5 presidential poll against his rival Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who obtained 31.6 percent of votes, in a similar press conference Wednesday urged the Election Commission to immediately stop vote counting.

The election commission, however, overlooked the demand and continued tallying Thursday.

Abdullah also said that the international community, which has been supporting Afghanistan and financed the poll process, has to take a responsible stance on the process.

Nevertheless, Abdullah said, "I am hopeful that the country will not go towards crisis."