Runner-Up in Afghan Elections Threatens to Boycott Inauguration --- KABUL, Afghanistan — Abdullah Abdullah, the runner-up in Afghanistan’s presidential election, is threatening to pull out of the inauguration on Monday of the country’s new leadership, which could imperil the national unity government he has agreed to join with the winning candidate, Ashraf Ghani. -- Talks between the two leaders’ representatives were going on late Sunday in an effort to save the inauguration to install Mr. Ghani as the country’s new president and appoint Mr. Abdullah as the power-sharing government’s chief executive officer, as well as to celebrate a peaceful end to an election process that dragged on for six months. -- The breakdown in cooperation between the two sides appeared to have been set off by what the Abdullah camp felt was Mr. Ghani’s violation of an agreement between them not to publicly reveal the vote totals in the election, saving embarrassment to Mr. Abdullah’s side, which says he was the real winner but was cheated of victory by vote fraud. -- On Friday, the country’s Independent Election Commission presented Mr. Ghani with a certificate confirming that he was the winner of the election, but once again did not publicly announce the vote totals. -- On Saturday, however, that certificate was posted on Mr. Ghani’s Facebook page. It read: “Respected Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Amadzai, son of Shah Jahan Ghani Ahmadzai, born in 1949, has received 3,935,567 votes (55.27%) out of the total 7,120,858 votes in the second round of the presidential election held on June 14, 2014. Henceforth he is elected the new president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.” -- While the inauguration would most likely go ahead without Mr. Abdullah’s participation, Western diplomats said, it would be a bad omen for the American-brokered unity government and prospects for its success. --- “There are three disputed issues,” he said. “First, handing over the first vice president’s office to the C.E.O. Second, allowing the C.E.O. to speak in the inauguration. And, last, swearing in the C.E.O. as well as the deputy CEOs. No luck yet but the negotiations are ongoing.” -- A member of Mr. Abdullah’s leadership committee, Fawzia Koofi, also said that top officials were seriously considering pulling out of the ceremony, but no final decision had yet been made. --- Taher Zuhair, a spokesman for Mr. Ghani, sought to downplay the inauguration imbroglio, saying it would go ahead as planned with both leaders present. -- “There are no disagreements between the two teams, so we disregard their claims that there are concerns and disagreements, because there is no disagreement,” he said. -- Read More, ROD NORDLAND, NYTimes, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/world/asia/runner-up-in-afghan-elections-threatens-to-boycott-inauguration.html