Afghanistan: After polls, guessing game begins

As Afghans await the results of a bitterly contested election, their country is caught in a complex guessing game about who will be their next president and how solid his mandate will be.

The gap between the main rivals in the race for the top job -- President Hamid Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah -- appears to be widening in the incumbent's favour.

Just over 17 per cent, or nearly one million ballots, have been counted and made public, showing the Western-backed Karzai with 42.3 per cent so far, and Abdullah on 33.1 per cent.

The Independent Election Commission (IEC), which is in charge of the count, has said it would not be releasing any more figures before Saturday.

Counting would continue, said IEC spokeswoman Marzia Siddiqi, giving no reasons for the cancellation of Thursday's release. Friday is a holiday in Islamic Afghanistan.

While IEC officials have been eager to stress that nothing should be extrapolated from the figures released so far, they appear to suggest turnout was low -- around 30-35 per cent -- raising questions about the legitimacy of the man declared president when final results are known in mid-September.