GHANI LEADS AFGHANISTAN PRESIDENTIAL RUN-OFF

Kabul, 10 Ramadan 1435/8 July 2014 (MINA) – Preliminary results in Afghanistan’s presidential polls have put Ashraf Ghani, the country’s former finance minister, in the lead, but the electoral commission has emphasised that the results are not final, Al Jazeera quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

In an announcement on Monday, Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani of the Afghan presidential commission said Ghani, an ex-World Bank economist, was in the lead with 56.44 percent of the vote, while his rival Abdullah Abdullah, a former Afghan foreign minister, had 43.56 percent.

The Independent Election Commission acknowledged that vote rigging had occurred and promised to launch a more extensive investigation before final results are released after the complaints commission recounted a number of votes.

The announcement came after last-minute talks by the candidates in an effort to try and resolve a standoff over the election outcome.

Ghani’s camp said the two sides had agreed to audit an additional 7,100 polling stations to ensure the final result is clean but Abdullah’s aides said the compromise was not final.

Both rounds of the vote to elect a successor to incumbent President Hamid Karzai have been plagued by accusations of mass fraud, and the refusal by either candidate to accept the outcome could split the fragile country along ethnic lines.

Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban fighter, claimed widespread fraud in the election.

He has accused Karzai of playing a role in the alleged vote-rigging in Ghani’s favour and says he would accept the vote only if he saw firm evidence that fraudulent votes had been thrown out and the final result was clean. (T/P09/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)