Abdullah rejects Afghan presidential poll result

Kabul, July 8 (IANS) Abdullah Abdullah Tuesday rejected the Afghan presidential elections preliminary result announced Monday, calling himself the winner.

"The preliminary result of presidential election is illegitimate and I don't accept it. The people of Afghanistan want us to announce our government," Xinhua quoted Abdullah as saying.

In his address, Abdullah said that he is the real winner and what has been announced by the Election Commission is fake and phony.

The preliminary result showed that Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former World Bank official, won the June 14 second round.

"Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai secured 56.44 percent of more than eight million votes in the presidential run-off held June 14, while his contender Abdullah Abdullah garnered 43.56 percent," Election Commission chairman Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani said Monday.

Abdullah also accused President Hamid Karzai, the Election Commission and Ghani Ahmadzai's team of fraud, warning that the country would plunge into crisis if clean votes are not filtered from the fake ones.