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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Karzai widens early lead in Afghan poll |
| 2004-10-17 |
| Interim leader Hamid Karzai has moved far ahead of his rivals in early results from Afghanistan's first-ever presidential elections as ballot counting - delayed over alleged irregularities - has gathered speed. On Saturday morning, some 2,500 election staff got to work at eight counting centers across Afghanistan after a day off to mark the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Of 344,000 votes tallied by early evening, Karzai, the U.S.-backed favorite, had captured 71 percent, though the preliminary result was based on only 4.2 percent of the ballots cast. Former Education Minister Yunus Qanooni had 15.4 percent, ahead of ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum with 4.3 percent. Final results are expected at the end of October, although it should be clear who has won within days - and whether the victor secures the majority needed to avoid a run-off. A top election official has estimated that despite Taleban intimidation and bad weather, about 8 million of the 10.5 million registered voters cast ballots. Counting began slowly on Thursday after five days of delays as a panel of foreign experts probed electoral fraud allegations submitted by the 16 candidates. |
| Posted by:Steve White |