Afghanistan - vote

Karzai narrowly ahead, say election commission

Article published on the 2009-08-25 Latest update 2009-08-25 14:59 TU

Afghan men transport a ballot box at the Independent Election Commission in Kabul
(Photo: Reuters)

In Afghanistan, the first results from last week's presidential were released today - giving President Hamid Karzai a two percent lead over his nearest challenger Abdullah Abdullah, although this reflects only 10 percent of the results. It could be up to two weeks before final results are released.

The initial results from the Afghan electoral commission gave Karzai 40.6 percent against Abdullah's 38.6.

"There's been a lot of allegations of ballot stuffing and of votes being added," said Martine von Bijlert of the Afghanistan Analysts Network in Kabul. "there's also not yet clarity on how to deal with that and what that will mean for the final turnout," she told RFI.

Von Bijlert observed voting in both the north of Kabul and west of the city. "To the north of Kabul there was turnout, but less than 2004, when I was also there," she said.

"The west of the city, which is the Hazera area, there was very high turnout, a lot of activity," she added. Her office received numerous reports from other parts of Afghanistan, such as the south and southeast, where the turnout was a lot lower due to the violence and voters fearing for their lives.

"So basically, what you see is that it's an election of a very very different face in different parts of the country. It's impossible to say one thing about the elections," said von Bijert.