Afghanistan: Initial Prez results show Karzai leading

On the Second day of initial Presidential results in Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai has widened his lead over his former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

The Election Commission announced initial results for 17 per cent of the polling stations. These are votes from 21 of the 34 provinces.

Hamid Karzai now has 44.82 per cent of these votes from 17 per cent of the polling stations.

Abdullah Abdullah has dropped to 35.11per cent. These are only a small percentage of votes and the race is still too close to call.

On Tuesday Karzai and Abdullah were neck and neck at 40.60 per cent and 38.68 per cent. The final result is expected on the 17th of September and if no one gets above 50 per cent, there will be a runoff in October.

Partial Afghan Presidential results:

• Hamid Karzai widens lead over Abdullah Abdullah
• Karzai has 44.82% of the result announced so far
• Abdullah has 35.11% of the result announced so far
• Result is from only 17% of the polling stations
• Final result expected on Sept 17