PESHAWAR, July 8: Preliminary results of the Afghan presidential runoff vote indicate Mr Ashraf Ghani is well ahead of his rival candidate, Mr Abdullah Abdullah, who had topped the first round of voting.
The Election Commission of Afghanistan has notified that in the second round of elections, Mr Ashraf Ghani got more than 4,875,000 votes while Mr Abdullah Abdullah bagged 3,461,000 votes.
The Election Commission says the results are not final as these could be changed due to some issues in vote counting.
Political analysts, however, say the victory of Ashraf Ghani is certain. Mr Abdullah Abdullah has rejected the results and blamed rigging in the election.
In the first round of elections Mr Abdullah Abdullah received 45 percent votes while Ashraf Ghani got 31% ballots.
As per the Afghan Constitution, it is compulsory to get at least 50 percent votes to become the president. The run-off voting was held on 14 June because no candidate could fulfill the requirement of 50 percent votes to win the presidential office.
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