Karzai, top rival running even in votes

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — President Hamid Karzai and his main rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, were running virtually even Tuesday in the first fragmented returns from last week’s Afghan election, raising the possibility of a runoff that could drag the process out for months.

The figures came from 10 percent of the more than 27,000 polling sites nationwide — too small a sampling either to draw a conclusion about the outcome or silence criticism that the ballot was marred by fraud and Taliban violence.

The U.S. and its NATO partners had hoped Thursday’s election would produce a clear winner with a strong mandate to confront the growing Taliban insurgency, widespread corruption, narcotics and a stagnant economy.

Six other presidential candidates, echoing Abdullah’s earlier claims, charged Tuesday that widespread fraud occurred on election day — mostly in Karzai’s favor.

The allegations threaten to discredit the eventual winner, stoke violence and cast doubt on the credibility of the Afghanistan democracy at a time when President Barack Obama and other Western leaders are considering investing more resources in an increasingly unpopular war.

Underscoring the crisis, a cluster of vehicle bombs detonated nearly simultaneously near a Japanese construction company in the southern city of Kandahar, killing at least 41 people, flattening buildings and sending flames shooting into the sky. The thundering explosion occurred just after nightfall Tuesday in a district that includes U.N. facilities and an Afghan intelligence office. Kandahar is the spiritual home of the Taliban.

Also in the south, a bombing killed four U.S. service members Tuesday. At least 172 American troops have died in the Afghan war this year — the deadliest since the conflict began in 2001.

The Independent Election Commission announced that Karzai was leading with 40.6 percent and Abdullah was trailing with 38.7 percent of the roughly 525,000 valid votes counted so far. Most of the votes came from Kabul, nearby Parwan and Nangarhar provinces, Kunduz and Jowzjan provinces in the north and Ghor province to the west.

However, the figures did not include votes from 12 of the country’s 34 provinces, including some where Karzai was expected to run strong.

In the volatile south, the homeland of Karzai’s Pashtun ethnic group, less than 2 percent of the votes in Kandahar province had been counted, and no votes in Helmand had been tallied, the commission said.

Karzai would expect to do well in both provinces, suggesting his returns could go higher. However, turnout was believed to have been low in those two provinces because of Taliban attacks and intimidation as well as heavy fighting between the insurgents and U.S.-led forces.