KABUL — Both main candidates for president of Afghanistan claimed to be ahead Friday after an election marred by violence, spotty turnout and fraud allegations — threatening U.S. hopes for Afghans to come together to combat the challenges of Taliban insurgency, corruption and poverty.
President Hamid Karzai’s campaign spokesman, Waheed Omar, said the president’s campaign thinks “we are well ahead” in the ballot count and will end up with more than 50 percent of the votes.
His chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister, challenged the claim. Abdullah said there “is a likelihood” that neither he nor Karzai would win more than 50 percent of the vote, setting the stage for a runoff in early October.
The U.S. Embassy and Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission dismissed both sides’ claims, saying it was too early for anyone to declare victory. Commission chairman Noor Mohammed Noor said candidates had no basis for such claims and should refrain from making them.
“Anything else is speculation at this point,” said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Fleur Cowan. “We will wait to hear from the IEC and electoral complaints commission.”
Millions of Afghans voted Thursday in the second-ever direct presidential election, although Taliban threats held down the turnout, especially in the militant south where Karzai was expected to run strong among his fellow Pashtuns. More than two dozen people died in insurgent attacks.
Clearly there were some irregularities in the vote.
The Times of London newspaper reported Friday that election officials at a polling station near Kabul recorded 5,530 ballots in the first hour of voting Thursday, even though no voters were at the site when the Times’ reporter arrived at 8 a.m., one hour after the voting began.
