Karzai rejects claim deputy was involved in vote fraud --- (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday rejected allegations ‮‮‮‮‮‮‮‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬that one of his deputies had orchestrated a fraud against a longtime rival in Afghanistan's recent presidential election. -- On Sunday, campaign aides of Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister and one of the candidates for president, released an audio recording they said was of Vice President Mohammad Karim Khalili encouraging vote-rigging in favor of Ashraf Ghani, the other contender. -- Aimal Faizi, Karzai's spokesman, on Monday dismissed the recording as a fake. Khalili's and Ghani's teams also rejected the recording. -- "This is a serious threat and violation to someone's security and privacy, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice," Faizi told Reuters. -- The two rounds of voting in the presidential election should have provided the first democratic transition of power in Afghanistan's history. Instead, they have been tainted by allegations of mass fraud. -- Abdullah's team accuses Karzai of rigging the vote and favoring former World Bank technocrat Ghani. The preliminary results of a U.N. audit show Ghani leading by about a million votes, but Western diplomats say they expect at least a quarter of the votes will be invalidated. - More, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/04/us-afghanistan-election-idUSKBN0G41JZ20140804