Afghans protest presidential election, allege fraud

Thousands of angry protesters marched on the Afghan president's palace on Friday in support of presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah's allegation that mass fraud had been committed during the country’s recent election.

Abdullah rejected the June 14 election result, charging he was the victim of ballot-box stuffing. His rival Ashraf Ghani won by more than 1 million votes.

Abdullah has also accused provincial governors, police and incumbent President Hamid Karzai of complicity in the alleged fraud. Karzai was constitutionally barred from running for a third term.

At least 10,000 people participated in Friday’s protest, according to witnesses who spoke to Reuters. Some protesters destroyed posters of Karzai.

The protest was the largest to be held since Abdullah alleged that ballot-box stuffing had taken place. It was also the first he attended.

Afghanistan’s election impasse has revived long-standing ethnic tensions in the country because Abdullah's base of support is with Tajiks, the second-largest ethnic group, while Ghani is Pashtun, the largest group.

"Our beloved president is Abdullah Abdullah," shouted many supporters, along with additional cries blaming Karzai for the political standoff. 

More menacing slogans heard during the protest included, "Death to Ashraf Ghani!" and "Death to the election commission!"

The election dispute has left Afghanistan in limbo at a dangerous time, with the Taliban insurgency still raging and with most NATO-led forces preparing to leave the country by the end of the year.

A potential agreement with Washington to allow a smaller U.S. military presence to stay in the country remains unsigned, as Karzai wanted to leave the agreement to his successor to make.

The top U.N. representative in Afghanistan warned of the risk of "a protracted confrontation with a danger of a slide into violence" in a briefing to the Security Council on Wednesday and urged Abdullah to return to the electoral process.

Abdullah has appealed to the U.N. to intervene to salvage the election, an action that Karzai has also backed.

Al Jazeera and wire services