Afghanistan's election commission says President Hamid
Karzai has received 54 percent of the vote with nearly all the ballots from the
August presidential elections now counted.
The preliminary results announced Tuesday show Mr. Karzai for the first time
surpassing the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off with his top challenger,
former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
Tuesday's results show Abdullah receiving 28.3 percent of the vote. Election
officials say more than 91 percent of the votes cast have been counted.
But Afghanistan's electoral watchdog (the Electoral Complaints Commission) says
it has found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud" in the vote,
and has ordered a recount of questionable ballots.
The United Nations-backed commission has ordered recounts from polling stations
that reported 100-percent voter turnout, and from locations where more than 95
percent of the votes were for one candidate.