Kabul: The first partial results from Afghanistan's election had President Hamid Karzai and his main rival running neck-and-neck on Tuesday, suggesting a close race headed for a second round.
The country has been in political limbo since last Thursday's election, with Karzai and chief rival Abdullah Abdullah each claiming victory. Abdullah and other challengers have accused Karzai and the authorities of widespread fraud.
The elections are a major test for Karzai after eight years in power and for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has poured in thousands of extra troops as part of his new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan.
The results, based on 10 percent of votes counted, gave Karzai a slight edge with 41 percent against 39 percent for Abdullah, his former foreign minister -- a difference of about 10,000 out of about 524,000 valid votes counted.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke urged caution, saying the early results were misleading.
"You don't call it with 10 percent ... it's too early to call," Holbrooke, who left Afghanistan on Monday, told reporters in Turkey.
The results also suggest a disappointing turnout of only around 5 million votes in a country of some 30 million people and an estimated 15 million eligible voters.
Karzai’s rival alleges fraud
Taliban fighters had launched attacks and threatened reprisals against voters during Thursday's election, scaring many Afghans away from the polls, especially in the violent south.
"We will not allow big fraud to decide the outcome. There is no doubt state-crafted widespread fraud is underway," Abdullah told reporters before the results were released by the Independent Election Commission.
Abdullah said he had no plans to make a deal with Karzai to drop his bid for the presidency.
"I will not make deals with anybody ... I will defend your votes," he said. Asked if the election dispute could lead to violence, he added: "I hope not."
Karzai was not immediately available for comment.
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Election officials have cautioned against drawing conclusions about the final count from the initial small samples. They promise to provide daily updates, but the complete count is not due until Sept 3.
Behind the two leaders, Ramazan Bashardost, a member of the Hazara ethnic minority who ran a quixotic campaign from a tent across the street from parliament, placed third with around 11 percent. Former finance minister Ashraf Ghani won 3 percent.
Four US servicemen were killed by a roadside bomb in the south, NATO and the U.S. military said earlier on Tuesday, making 2009 the deadliest year for the growing contingent of foreign troops in eight years of war.
More than 30,000 extra U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan this year, most part of a package of reinforcements ordered by Obama in May amid a growing Taliban insurgency.
There are now more than 100,000 Western troops in the country, 63,000 of them Americans.
The number of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan this year stands at 295, according to icasualties.org, a website which compiles official figures. Last year, 294 died.
The U.S. reinforcements sent by Obama, along with a British contingent already deployed in the south, have advanced deep into formerly Taliban-held territory, taking heavy casualties mainly from roadside bombs. More Western troops have died since March than in the entire period from 2001-2004.
Karzai, who was installed in an international agreement after the Taliban were toppled in 2001 and who won the country's first presidential election in 2004, has been keen to win an outright majority and avoid a potentially destabilising run-off.
On Monday, Karzai's finance minister, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, told reporters over dinner that figures supplied to him as a member of the cabinet showed Karzai with a landslide 68 percent of the vote. Abdullah's spokesman called those results false.
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