KABUL (PAN): President Hamid Karzai is cruising toward a first-round victory in Afghanistan's presidential election, tallying 71 percent of the 4.5 million votes counted so far, knowledgeable sources revealed on Saturday.
As of 4pm today, one source confided to Pajhwok Afghan News, more than 4.5 million ballots had been calculated hitherto. Of the 4514084 votes counted thus far, the incumbent has collected 3244196.
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, main challenger to Karzai, bagged about a million votes, some 23 percent of the total calculated so far, the sources said. To be specific, he added, 1029467 votes went to the former foreign minister.
Ramazan Bashardost got 189653 votes, Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmedzai 47954 and Mirwais Yasini 2714. Another two million votes remain to be tallied from remote areas where Karzai was overwhelmingly supported.
Even if Abdullah were to collect 50 percent of the remaining votes, he could not force Karzai into a second-round election. But Independent Election Commission officials would not comment on the information, pending announcement of the initial result on Tuesday.
The information was reported to Pajhwok by a high-level party official who is watching the vote count. It was confirmed by a source from Karzai's office, who is also watching the count.
Millions of Afghans braved threats and difficulties to cast their votes. However, monitoring groups reported violations, including ballot-box stuffing, use of fake voter cards and campaign materials being distributed at polling stations.
A United Nations worker in Kabul, meanwhile, believed the voter turnout worked out at approximately seven million. In Kabul province, he said, the president received 57 percent of votes, followed by Abdullah with 22 percent, Bashardost 15 percent and Ghani two percent.
But UNAMA spokesperson Nazifullah Salarzai, without denying or confirming the accuracy of the Pajhwok story, said: "The Afghan Independent Election Commission (IEC) is the only authority to announce any results related to the counting process for 2009 presidential and provincial council elections. No UN official has the right to announce election results."
mud
