Independent Elections Commission (IEC) officials announced on Sunday that Abdullah Abdullah is in the lead with only 10 percent of votes counted.
IEC Chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said the results announced today count for 26 out of 34 provinces of Afghanistan, representing 500,000 of the estimated seven million ballots.
According to the results, Abdullah Abdullah is ahead with 41.9 percent with Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai trailing at 37.6 percent, Zalmai Rassoul in third with 9.8 percent and Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf falling behind with 5.1 percent.
In a press conference on Sunday, Abdullah Abdullah said Sunday’s result is just a highlight for what is to come.
“These results are preliminary because results from eight other provinces are still missing,” Abdullah said. “Today’s result indicates that the election might not go into a second round.”
Eight provinces were not included in the partial results. The provinces include: Paktika, Wardak, Ghazni, Badakhsha, Baghlan, Ghor, Nuristan and Daikondi.
Presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said in a press conference on Sunday that the partial result included both valid and invalid votes.
“Today’s result was a basic result,” Ghani said. “The counted votes included a both clean and fraudulent vote, which needs to be differentiated, and I hope this is distinguished soon.”
Ghani added that election commissions need to address the complaints soon because the results announced today included those objections filed on Election Day.
“Today’s results were 10 percent of votes, but what was the total number of people who voted?” Ghani asked. “We request the IEC to release the total number of voters.”
Nuristani said that 75 percent of votes nationwide have been received, but not counted for the partial result statement.
“For partial results we only counted 10 percent –500,000 votes—we are still counting the remaining votes for the final reveal,” Nuristani said.
Nuristani added that it is too soon to talk about a second round of elections because they have not finished counting.
“This was just the partial results,” he said.
Source/Fuente: http://www.tolonews.com/elections2014/updated-abdullah-leads-partial-res...
