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| Afghanistan |
| Karzai's Lead Widens in Afghan Race |
| 2009-08-27 |
| President Hamid Karzai extended his lead over his top challenger in Afghanistan's presidential election, new results showed Wednesday, but he remains short of the 50 percent threshold that would allow him to avoid a two-man runoff. The latest returns boost Karzai's standing to 44.8 percent. Abdullah, a former foreign minister, has 35.1 percent. The count is based on returns from 17 percent of polling stations nationwide, meaning the results could still change dramatically. Tuesday's returns had Abdullah trailing by two percentage points. Afghan election officials are slowly releasing results from last Thursday's election, but final certified results will not be ready until at least mid-September, after fraud complaints have been investigated. |
| Posted by:ed |