Until the last minute, Abdullah himself threatened to boycott the inauguration, reportedly unhappy with the election commission's decision to print the final vote count on Ghani's winner's certificate, despite an agreement to keep the tally secret.
As such, the court upheld the election court's decision.
But the election commission's decision to cancel them now makes that look improbable.
The election commission's decision was made public Thursday night, and no official statement was made.
But on Saturday he said he would accept the election commission's decision for an August ballot.
The immediate beneficiary of the election board's decision is expected to be a left-of-center party that includes Kemal Dervis, a former economy minister.
In Nassau County, the Democrats will ask that a judge look into the election board's decision to discard the machine recount that was required by law, and to revert to the election-night total.
A key challenge rests on the election board's decision late in the day to count unstamped ballots, which would have been invalidated in past elections, and which accounted for about 1.5 million votes.
It disagreed with the election court's decision that a false statement can at the same time relate both to a candidate's public and personal character (para 109).
Belinda Boyd, the school aide who nominated Mr. Ferina, said she, too, was shocked by the election committee's decision, because she had a union membership card, had voted in several union elections and had had dues taken out of her paycheck for seven years.
Parties and rights groups are also concerned by the election commission's decision to deploy 371,000 troops, three times more than 2013, at polling stations, and grant them broad judicial powers, including to hold on-the-spot trials and sentence anyone breaking election laws.
