Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah leads his closest rival Ashraf Ghani in the Afghan presidential election, the country’s Independent Election Commission (IEC) said today.
“Today we announce the partial results of 26 provinces with 10 percent of votes counted, these include (provinces) in the north, south, east, west and Kabul,” said Yousuf Nuristani, the IEC chief.
“With 500,000 votes from 26 provinces Dr Abdullah is leading with 41.9 percent; Dr Ashraf Ghani has 37.6 percent and is in second; and Zalmai Rassoul has 9.8 percent in third position.”
A run-off election between the two leading candidates automaticaly be will be triggered if no single candidate gains more than 50 percent of the vote when the final results are announced in late May.
