Kabul:
The EU election observers have said that around 1.5 million votes cast in Afghanistan's troubled elections last month could be fraudulent.
"We have calculated 1.5 million suspicious votes," said Dimitra Ioannou, the deputy head of the EU Election Observation Mission to Afghanistan.
She told reporters 1.1 million votes cast for the incumbent Hamid Karzai were suspicious and 300,000 for his main rival Abdullah Abdullah. The remainder of the suspicious votes were cast for other candidates.
The August 20 election has been overshadowed by allegations of widespread fraud that are threatening to undermine the final result.
Preliminary results are due to be released on Wednesday, nearly a month after the election, although the final declaration of a winner is not likely for some weeks yet, officials say.
The EU observers did not give an estimated figure for turnout, expected to be low owing to intimidation of voters by the Taliban, whose insurgency against the Afghan government and Western troops is at its deadliest in eight years.
Karzai is leading an incomplete count with 54.3 per cent, ahead of his main rival Abdullah on 28.1 per cent.
Analysts have said that based on the count so far, turnout could be around 30-35 per cent, or not much higher than six million out of a total registered electorate of 17 million.