26 Aug 2009

Afghanistan president leads election count

9:09 am on 26 August 2009

Initial counting from the presidential election in Afghanistan shows incumbent Hamid Karzai with a slight lead.

With 10% of the ballots counted, the Election Commission says he has 212,000 votes, compared to 202,000 for ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

However, there remain many allegations of fraud and the commission is investigating almost 800 complaints.

The final results are not expected to be known for several weeks.

More than 50% of the vote is needed to avoid a run-off.