Afghanistan front runners claim victory in presidential election

As electoral authorities in Afghanistan count the votes for yesterday´s presidential election, the two front runners are already claiming victory.

Earlier today, Hamid Karzai´s campaign manager said the incumbent president has obtained more than 50 percent of the votes and that a second round will not be needed. Karzai´s main rival is former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who fought for the Northern Alliance in the days of the Taliban regime.  He told Al-Jazeera English that he was leading in the polls.

“Of course we will let the elections commissions tell us the results when they have all the results. From the south we don´t have a lot of information and unfortunately the turnout there has been very low. But in the area where the results are announced I am in the lead, no doubt.”

Citing information from his observers at polling stations, Abdullah´s campaign manager said his candidate had obtained more than 60 percent of the votes with Karzai obtaining a mere 31 percent. Afghanistan´s Independent Electoral Commission urged candidates to be patient and to refrain from making victory statements.  The commission estimates voter turnout at around 50 percent.  And preliminary results from several districts are expected tomorrow with final results coming in next week.

The election was hailed as a success by the international community, although opposition candidates like Abdullah complained of irregularities in southern provinces.  Ramazan Bashardost, who was running in third place in opinion polls, complained about the indelible ink that was placed on voters fingers to ensure they couldn´t vote twice.  After voting himself, Bashardost wiped the ink off his index finger in front of TV cameras.

“This is vote is not transparent it is not honest it is not free. Because look at the ink, there is nothing.”

The Electoral Complaints Commission says it is processing some 100 complaints from different polling booths across the country. Its director, Canadian Grant Kippen, told the BBC that while he was impressed with turnout levels, it was too early to tell if the elections have been a success.