Karzai maintains lead in Afghan election

Afghan President Hamid Karzai maintains a substantial lead in the country’s August presidential polls, according to partial results issued by election officials on Saturday. Out of 5,545,149 valid votes from 92.82 percent of the country’s polling stations, Karzai has 3,009,559 and his closest challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, the nation’s former foreign minister, has 1,558,591, the Independent Election Commission said.

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Afghanistan commission orders partial vote recount

Afghanistan’s Electoral Complaints Commission on Tuesday ordered a partial recount of the ballots in the August 20 presidential election. The complaints commission called on Afghanistan’s Independent Elections Commission (IEC) to conduct the audit and recount because of “clear and convincing evidence of fraud in a number of polling stations.” Most of that fraud evidence is an “exceptionally high number” of votes cast in a polling station “in relation to the number of ballots available” or an extremely high number of votes cast for only one candidate, according to the ECC.

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Votes tossed from 447 polls in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission said Sunday it was tossing ballots from 447 polling stations in figuring results of the August presidential election. The number of votes thrown out was not immediately known, but it could be as many as tens of thousands.

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Karzai ahead in Afghan election but could face runoff

President Hamid Karzai continues to maintain a strong lead in last month’s presidential election but needs more votes to avoid a runoff, according to partial results issued by Afghan election officials on Wednesday. Karzai is the choice on 47.28 percent of the ballots counted so far and his closest challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, is at 32.57 percent, Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission said

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Karzai rival claims widespread fraud in Afghan vote

Incumbent President Hamid Karzai’s chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, repeated his charges of widespread ballot fraud Monday and declared that Karzai "single-handedly put Afghanistan at risk by trying to rig the elections." As Afghanistan’s elections commission prepared to release preliminary voting results in the nation’s presidential race on Tuesday, Abdullah told CNN in an interview that his campaign had received what he described as credible reports of fraud in the southern provinces, where security was poor and turnout less than 10 percent. Abdullah said ballot boxes were stuffed with additional votes, with 90 percent of them going to Karzai. “This is stealing the elections and it will not be accepted,” Abdullah said in the interview

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