Afghan polls marred by poll-rigging

Afghanistan will shortly release partial results from last week's presidential election, but complete nationwide results are not expected for another ten days.

With people eagerly awaiting official results, the big question is: can president Karzai win over 50 per cent of the votes - required to avoid another runoff election with his former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah. There have been reports of fraud, underage voting and intimidation.

Abdullah Abdullah, the top rival of Karzai in the election, said: "My focus today is on the big fraud. Big fraud, which can have an impact on the outcome of the elections. This has to be prevented as it is critical for the survival of the process."

Both presidential camps were quick off the block to claim victory. Afghanistan's Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal on Tuesday claimed a big win saying that Karzai had received about 68 per cent, or more than 3 million, while Abdullah Abdullah, had got only one third of that.

The claims and counterclaims have been criticised by both the election commission and even the US which has warned of patience till official results come in.

The US and other allied leaders are hoping that a successful vote will contribute to stability. But, concerns have been mounting that electoral fraud in the south and east of the country, where observers hardly dared to tread, could give an advantage to Hamid Karzai.

However, the Afghan election commission insists that will not impact the overall result.

According to Zekria Barakzai, the IEC deputy chairman, "The Electoral Complaints Commission announced that they have received 225 complaints so far among which there are 35 complaints with evidence that can impact the election results. But I think that the 35 complaints will not have an impact on 6300 polling stations in 34 provinces. I don't think this will have any impact on the results."

Independent election monitors have received almost 700 complaints, around 50 of them they say serious. And, the process of going through all of them will further delay the final result to at least September 17.