BALKH, Afghanistan - The still unresolved presidential election in Afghanistan is having a disruptive effect throughout the country, with the possibility of outright violence between political rivals in a key northern province.

The growing dispute pits the governor of Balkh province, Atta Mohammad Noor, an ethnic Tajik, against Juma Khan Hamdard, an ethnic Pashtun commander who once served as governor of a neighboring province and who now governs Paktia province in the southeastern part of the country.

Noor backed Abdullah Abdullah in the Aug. 20 presidential election; Hamdard supported President Hamid Karzai.

In early September, Noor publicly accused the central government of sponsoring widespread electoral fraud in favor of Karzai. He also claimed that the interior ministry, through Hamdard, was distributing weapons to Balkh's Pashtun districts in an effort to destabilize the province.

Noor delivered his address on the eighth anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the legendary Tajik commander who was killed two days before the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Noor had been Massoud's adviser and spokesman.

A spokesman for the interior ministry vehemently rejected Noor's accusations.

Assassination accusations

Hamdard also denied the accusation and launched his own charge, claiming that Noor was behind a series of assassinations of Pashtun tribal leaders in the north.

"Juma Khan Hamdard has never been associated with insecurity in Balkh," said Ruhullah Samoon, the governor's spokesman. "And it is not Juma Khan Hamdard who has been murdering Pashtun leaders." Local residents in Balkh say both men are guilty of increasing tensions in the province and raising fears that the civil war that decimated the country in the early 1990s could resume.

Observers trace Noor's anger against the central government to Karzai's decision to pass over Noor and instead select the Tajik's bitter rival, Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, as a running mate. Noor quickly shifted his political support to Karzai's chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

(On Tuesday Karzai agreed to a runoff election.) Meanwhile, Noor appears to be moving to shore up his position.

One way to do that is stir up ethnic tensions. Before becoming governor in Paktia, Hamdard served as governor of Jowzjan, a province that neighbors Balkh. His term there was marred by violent demonstrations by predominantly Uzbek population against what they saw as his Pashtun-centric policies.

Ethnicity and politics make an explosive combination in Afghanistan.

Local residents in Balkh say both men are guilty of increasing tensions in the province and raising fears that the civil war that decimated the country in the early 1990s could resume.

Regional enmity

In fact, the enmity between the two has reached a point where it seems to have eclipsed the original reason for the dispute.

"If you listen to Karzai and Abdullah, they are much more conciliatory than (Noor and Hamdard)," said Ustad Satar, a teacher in Balkh. "This is what has people so worried. When Noor says he won't accept the results, what he is saying is that he does not want to lose his power. If Karzai wins, Noor is gone, with all his trappings. He is trying to save what he has. And on the other hand, Hamdard is desperately trying to replace him." As usual, the losers in this ongoing dispute are the Afghan people.

While the two factions have been struggling, insurgents have been steadily gaining ground in the region. Parts of Baghlan and Kunduz, two nearby provinces, are already under control of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, private reconstruction efforts have faltered as tensions grow.

It all leads some to fear that the once relatively secure north will soon begin to look like the war-torn south.

Ahmad Kawoosh is a reporter in Afghanistan who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, Web site: www.iwpr.net.