KABUL - As the Presidential election draws near, the campaign trail heated up this week when Dr. Abdullah Abdullah's ticket took issue with recent statements from Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai's camp.

Based on recent surveys, the Afghan public favors Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani as potential successors to Hamid Karzai over the other nine candidates registered for the race.

Although the official campaign season does not begin until next month, unofficial publicity stunts and image-building tactics have slid under the radar as the candidates seek to position themselves as auspiciously as possible.

"I challenge them for a debate in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan," Presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani recently said about his competitors." Wherever they want, we are ready, and if they don't have an office, we will open one for them, and if they don't have horses, General Dostum will provide them, and if they don't accept the debate, then they should come for a Buzkashi match."

However, Ashraf Ghani's comments were not the ones that ruffled feathers this week. It was a statement from General Abdul Rashid Dostum, Ashraf Ghani's Vice-Presidential candidate, that garnered the criticisms of Abdullah's team.

"We understand that if I was with Dr. Abdullah, chances of winning would have been 100 percent, but what would have happened?" General Dostum asked. "Our Afghanistan would have been partitioned, but now, we have neutralized the divide in Afghanistan based on region and tribes."

General Dostum is from the northern region and of the Uzbek ethnicity while his running mate Ashraf Ghani is Pashtun and from the more southern area of the country.

Although Abdullah was not available for comment, his Vice-Presidential candidate Muhammad Mohaqeq was quick to offer a response to Dostum's comments.

"Someone who has defended his country during times of Jihad and resistance, how can he partition his country and no one has made such accusations against Dr. Abdullah before?" Mohaqeq questioned. "I think this is more of a political joke than a reality, and this is an accusation that has previously been made against General Dostum."

General Dostum was considered one of the most powerful regional leaders during the civil war era in the 1990s. (Tolo News)