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Afghan rival accepts run-off

Wednesday, October 21, 2009 KABUL: President Hamid Karzai's chief political rival is agreeing to run in the Nov. 7 run-off election and says he'll be ready. Abdullah Abdullah told reporters Wednesday that he telephoned Karzai to thank him for agreeing to a second round ballot. It was Abdulllah's first public comment since Karzai bowed to U.S. and international pressure and accepted findings of a U.N.-backed panel that there had been massive fraud on his behalf in the Aug. 20 vote. Those findings showed Karzai failed to win the 50 percent required to avoid a run-off.
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