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Afghan rivals claim poll victory | |
(21 minutes later) | |
The two leading contenders for Afghanistan's presidential election have both claimed victory. | |
The campaign teams for incumbent Hamid Karzai and ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah both said they had won an outright majority. | |
Electoral officials say the ballot counting is now over and the official result will be announced soon, but warned against predicting the outcome. | |
Millions of Afghans defied Taliban threats to vote in Thursday's poll. | |
Voting passed off relatively peacefully and, although there were some attacks by insurgents, the UN said the vast majority of polling stations were able to function. | |
The election process won praise from the United States, the United Nations and Nato. | |
'Different turnouts' | |
Deen Mohammad, the campaign chief for Hamid Karzai, said they predicted victory after reports from nearly 29,000 monitors they had at polling stations across the country. | |
"Initial results show that the president has got a majority," he told Reuters news agency. "We will not go to a second round. We have got a majority." | |
But a spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah was quick to play down the Karzai camp's claims. | |
Fazl Sangcharaki said the results from his observers at polling booths around the country suggested Abdullah Abdullah had won 63% of the vote to Hamid Karzai's 31%. | |
"This is not a final result," he told the AFP news agency. "We are still receiving more results from our people on the ground. We might be done by tomorrow." | |
Afghan election officials refused to confirm either candidates' claims. | |
Instead, they asked the campaign teams to refrain from speculating on the results. | |
Official results had not been expected for a couple of weeks, but the Afghan Election Commission confirmed on Friday that ballot counting was over for the presidential election in all parts of the country. | Official results had not been expected for a couple of weeks, but the Afghan Election Commission confirmed on Friday that ballot counting was over for the presidential election in all parts of the country. |
One election commission official, Zekria Barakzai, told the AFP that he expected the official results to be announced next week. | |
"The turnout was different from south to the north and central parts of Afghanistan but still it is satisfactory and I expect that turnout will be from 40 to 50%," he said. | "The turnout was different from south to the north and central parts of Afghanistan but still it is satisfactory and I expect that turnout will be from 40 to 50%," he said. |