Abdullah says fraud gave his rival a million vote lead in Afghan vote --- (Reuters) - Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah said on Monday his opponent's apparent million-vote lead in the second round of national elections at the weekend was due to massive fraud. -- Observers fear allegations of fraud on both sides could lead to a lengthy and paralysing struggle for power along ethnic lines, threatening to derail attempts to transfer power democratically for the first time in Afghanistan's history. -- "I have always maintained that the main rival is fraud," Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter, told reporters. -- Abdullah did not name his rival Ashraf Ghani in his accusation, but his camp suggested Ghani's supporters were involved, as well as individuals connected to current President Hamid Karzai. --- Based on initial reports received by Abdullah's staff, results from Saturday's vote put Ghani in the lead by close to a million votes. -- Official preliminary results are not due out until July 2. --- Ghani's camp warned Abdullah against pushing the country into a crisis by refusing to accept the legitimacy of the vote. -- "The basics of democracy is that all participants have to accept the result of elections. Voting is the people's right and they paid a big price to achieve it," said a spokesman, Faizullah Zaki. -- Hundreds of people were killed or wounded in election day attacks by the Taliban insurgency. But millions of Afghans were undeterred by the attempt to derail the vote and turnout was estimated by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) at more than seven million, in line with numbers in the first round. -- Abdullah questioned the IEC's figures, putting the turnout at more like five million out of an estimated 12 million eligible voters. - More, http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/06/16/us-afghanistan-election-fraud-idINKBN0ER1UL20140616