More Afghan poll results expected

Afghan election authorities are due to release more results from presidential polls after an early count gave incumbent Hamid Karzai a slight lead. The results published so far suggest a straight contest between President Karzai and the opposition candidate, Dr Abdullah Abdullah.

Poll authorities are releasing results on a daily basis, with a further 10% anticipated in this latest batch.

Final results are not expected for several weeks.

A candidate needs more than 50% of votes to avoid a run-off.

There have been a series of accusations of fraud and vote rigging, which have cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election.

Other leading candidates:

  • **Ramazan Bashardost **
    53,740 (10.2%)
  • **Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai **
    15,143 (2.9%)

Winning candidate needs more than 50% of votes to avoid a run-off

A BBC correspondent says the electoral authorities are receiving hundreds of complaints each day.

With 10% of the ballots counted, the election commission on Tuesday said Mr Karzai had 212,927 votes, compared to 202,889 for former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Afghan and Western officials have declared last Thursday’s poll a success, despite concerns about the turnout, especially in the insurgency-wracked south.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said there were more than 400 insurgent attacks on election day, which would make it one of the most violent days in Afghanistan since 2001.