[asif1986]

http://www.teletext....fghan+poll.aspx

Afghan president Hamid Karzai and his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah have both claimed victory in the country's election, 24 hours after millions braved Taliban threats and intimidation to vote.

Both sides said their candidate was ahead in the count, while the country's Independent Election Commission said it was too early for anyone to claim victory.

Counting at individual polling sites has been completed, but ballots are now being sent to Kabul and partial preliminary results will not be made public before next Tuesday.

It is likely to be weeks before the people of Afghanistan - and the dozens of countries with troops and aid organisations in the country - will know who will lead the troubled nation for the next five years. The next president faces an agenda filled with crises: rising insurgent violence, rampant corruption and a huge narcotics trade.

Mr Abdullah's camp said it was investigating claims of fraud across southern provinces where Mr Karzai would expect to do well.

"As far as my campaign is concerned, I am in the lead, and that's despite the rigging which has taken place in some parts of the country," said Mr Abdullah.

He claimed that government officials interfered with ballot boxes and in some places blocked monitors from inspecting boxes or their contents.

Mr Abdullah said there "is a likelihood" that neither he nor Mr Karzai got more than 50% of the vote, which would trigger a run-off. Although election officials previously said preliminary results would be announced tomorrow, they moved the date to next week.

Mr Karzai's campaign spokesman said they were "well ahead" in the vote count based on reports the campaign has received.

"Our prediction is that the election will not go to the second round," he said. "Our initial information is that we will hopefully be able to win the elections in the first round."

[Madina]

Polls show that Karzai is leading in many places so let's see what happens.

[Lindt]

There have been claims of fraud in these elections which isn't surprising at all lol. On Al Jazeera, they pointed out that one polling station had more votes counted than the number of people who showed up to vote. in one town, 100% of the votes went to Karzai

[Madina]

^ The sad part is that the most popular candidates keep saying this election is a fraud, but those very same candidates also claimed victory in the first week itself, LOL. Weird people.

[Administrator]

I know you are trying to attack Abdullah. If fraud wouldn't have happened the true winner would have been Abdullah not Karzai.

[Sohrab]

Lindt, on 10 September 2009 - 04:16 PM, said:

There have been claims of fraud in these elections which isn't surprising at all lol. On Al Jazeera, they pointed out that one polling station had more votes counted than the number of people who showed up to vote. in one town, 100% of the votes went to Karzai

In some polling stations the voter turn out was 100% and at the same time 100% of them voted for karzai, very funny. people must have seen the elders of Shorabak district of Qandahar who claimed that their votes were all stolen.

[Lindt]

Just looking at the situation, it could be months till a winner is named...

http://www.reuters.c...is/idUSSP529844

Gul agha, on 11 September 2009 - 10:07 AM, said:

I know you are trying to attack Abdullah. If fraud wouldn't have happened the true winner would have been Abdullah not Karzai.

You think wrong. I don't support warlords who run for the top spot and I'm simply reiterating what I heard.

[Madina]

Yesterday I heard polling stations of some provinces had been banned because of fraud and majority had voted for Karzai there. There we go, there is still hope for a new president.