Afghan presidential candidate calls for sacking of top election office
Updated
A political row in Afghanistan has erupted over the future of the head of the country's election commission.
President Hamid Karzai's challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, is calling for the removal of Afghanistan's top election official before next month's runoff poll.
Presenter: Kim Landers, North America correspondent
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KIM LANDERS: In Kabul, Afghan police have fired shots into the air to disperse about 1,000 students. They were protesting against reports that American troops burned a copy of the Koran last week.
During the demonstration, the students burned an effigy of US President Barack Obama. US and Afghan authorities say the report about the Koran burning is false, spread by the Taliban to stir up trouble.
The protests come as US President Barack Obama has held a sixth meeting with his national security team to discuss future strategy in Afghanistan. He's left that meeting to travel to a naval air station in Jacksonville Florida where he's made this promise.
BARACK OBAMA: I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary.
KIM LANDERS: Meanwhile as Afghanistan's presidential runoff election draws closer, candidate Abdullah Abdullah has called for the dismissal of the country's top election official.
Abdullah Abdullah says Azizullah Lodin is loyal to incumbent President Hamid Karzai and should be replaced within five days.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH: He has left no credibility for the institution and unfortunately for he, himself, in order to be trusted by the people of Afghanistan as the head of an independent body.
KIM LANDERS: Azizullah Lodin has dismissed the call.
AZIZULLAH LODIN: I don't think that he has the authority to remove or replace some ministers and some high officials in Afghanistan, including me, because in this country we have a constitution, we have law and regulation.
KIM LANDERS: Presidential challenger Abdullah Abdullah also wants several ministers who campaigned for Hamid Karzai in the first round of polling to be suspended.
Meanwhile President Hamid Karzai says any sudden upheaval at the Independent Election Commission would not be helpful to the election and to the country.
Campaigning for the November 7th runoff election is well underway. The Taliban is urging people not to vote in what it calls an American process.
Meanwhile helicopter crashes in Afghanistan have claimed the lives of 14 Americans in the deadliest day for the US mission in Afghanistan in more than four years. In the deadliest crash, seven US troops and three officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration were killed.
In the other accident, two US helicopters collided, killing four American troops.
