**Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s main election rival has expressed confidence in a UN-backed commission investigating fraud in the August vote.**Abdullah Abdullah said he hoped the panel’s findings would lead to a second round of voting, but reserved judgement until it announces its decision.
The commission is expected to rule on the poll within days.
Initial results suggest Mr Karzai won the first round with about 55% of the vote, with Mr Abdullah on 28%.
But the election has been dogged by allegations of ballot-stuffing and coercion of voters.
Ugly picture
About 10% of votes cast are being audited by the Electoral Complaints Commission. Mr Abdullah hopes that enough will be thrown out to reduce Mr Karzai’s share to below 50%, forcing a run-off.
“Hopefully… we will see that the ugly picture of fraud is excluded from the results in the outcome,” he told reporters.
But a spokesman for Mr Karzai said a run-off was unlikely.
“If that process remains technical, remains transparent and remains accountable, we do not see a chance for the elections to go to a second round,” said Waheed Omar, quoted by the Associated Press.
On Sunday Kai Eide, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, acknowledged there had been “widespread fraud”, but said any effect on the result of the vote remained unclear.
His deputy, Peter Galbraith, was removed from his post earlier this month after alleging that Mr Eide had covered up the extent of the fraud to maintain good relations with Hamid Karzai. Mr Eide denies the charge.