KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai extended his lead over his top challenger in the latest vote results announced Wednesday, but he remains short of the 50 percent threshold that would allow him to avoid a runoff.
Afghan election officials are slowly releasing results from last week’s presidential election, and final certified results will not be ready until at least mid-September, after dozens of serious complaints of fraud have been investigated.
Low voter turnout and the fraud allegations have cast a pall over the vote, seen as crucial to efforts to stabilize a country wracked by Taliban insurgents and doubts over its fragile democracy.
Top challenger Abdullah Abdullah has accused Karzai of widespread rigging, including ballot stuffing and voter intimidation, claims that Karzai’s camp has denied.
The latest returns boost Karzai’s standing to 44.8 percent. Abdullah, a former foreign minister, has 35.1 percent.
The count is based on returns from 17 percent of polling stations nationwide, meaning the results could change dramatically.
Tuesday’s returns had Abdullah trailing Karzai by just 3 percentage points.
Although millions of Afghans voted last Thursday, apathy and fear of militant attacks meant turnout was down from the nation’s first direct presidential election in 2004, which was swept by Karzai.
Meanwhile, NATO said two U.S. troops died Wednesday in two separate attacks, keeping August on pace to be the deadliest month of the war for the U.S. military. The two deaths bring to 43 the number of U.S. troops killed this month. Last month was the deadliest of the war, when 44 U.S. troops died.
On Tuesday night, a huge bombing hit the main southern city of Kandahar, killing at least 43 people and wounded 65. The attack, which destroyed dozens of buildings, took place in a district that includes U.N. facilities and an Afghan intelligence office.
An Afghan employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross was among the dead.
The Interior Ministry said the blast was from remote-controlled explosives planted in a truck, although local officials had said earlier that a cluster of five vehicle bombs caused the blast.
