By Jerome Starkey in Lashkar Gah
PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai and his leading opponent both claimed to have won Afghanistan’s election outright yesterday, fuelling fears of post-election riots.
Most of the votes have been counted but official results are not due until 3 September.
Mr Karzai’s campaign manager Haji Deen Mohammad said: “Initial results show that the president has got a majority. We will not go to a second round. We have got a majority.”
Abdullah Abdullah – Mr Karzai’s former foreign minister – whose supporters have threatened riots “with Kalashnikovs” if Mr Karzai wins in the first round, said: “I’m ahead. Initial results from the provinces show that I have more than 50 per cent of the vote. In some provinces it is well above 60 per cent.”
Mr Abdullah’s camp said it was investigating fraud claims across southern provinces where Mr Karzai would expect to do well.
“As far as my campaign is concerned, I am in the lead, and that’s despite the rigging which has taken place in some parts of the country,” Mr Abdullah said.
He claimed that government officials interfered with ballot boxes, and in some places blocked monitors from inspecting boxes or their contents. Mr Abdullah said there “is a likelihood” that neither he nor Mr Karzai got more than 50 per cent of the vote, a circumstance that would trigger a run-off.
But Mr Karzai’s spokesman Waheed Omar said a second round would be “logistically, financially and also politically” problematic for the people of Afghanistan, though the election commission has said it is ready to hold a second round if needed.
“Our prediction is that the election will not go to the second round,” Mr Omar said.
“Our initial information is that we will hopefully be able to win the elections in the first round.”
US president Barack Obama said the Afghanistan election was major progress but warned that violence may continue. (Read More)
