Karzai nearing to victory as 95% polling stations counted
KABUL. September 12. KAZINFORM. Incumbent Afghan President Hamid Karzai has obtained over 54 percent votes as 95 percent of some 27,000 polling stations have been counted, the election body announced Saturday; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
"Out of total 5,545,149 votes counted so far, Mr. Karzai has secured 3,009,559 or 54.3 percent votes and Mr. Abdullah Abdullah has secured 1,558,591 or 28.1 percent votes," chief officer of the Electoral Commission Daud Ali Najafi told a news conference.
Ramazan Bashardost, by bagging 511,441 or 9.2 percent votes, has secured the third position in the race, Najafi added.
This is the partial result of the complex vote counting of the second presidential election in the post-Taliban country held on August 20 amid tight security; Kazinform cites Xinhua. See www.xinhuanet.com for full version.