Afghanistan: Ghani Leads Preliminary Results

The Independent Election Commission (IEC) announced preliminary results of the runoff presidential election Monday evening with Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai leading with 56.44 percent.

Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah fell behind with 43.56 percent.

Tonight's results were made up of 100 percent of votes cast across the country.

Head of IEC Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said the total number of voters announced this evening was eight million; exactly 8,109,403.

Of the, little over eight million votes, 62.37 percent of the voters were male and 37.63 percent were female.

Dr. Ghani-Ahmadzai led the preliminary results with exactly 4,485,888 votes, with Dr. Abdullah trailing behind with 3,461,639 votes; a difference of exactly 1,024,249 votes between the two candidates.

During the announcement Nuristani said that the IEC accepts the fact that there were technical problems as well as frauds that took place in the election process.

He emphasized, after the announcement of the results, that these are not the final results.

"The announcement preliminary result does not mean the winner has been announced," Nuristani said. "The investigation of votes could have impacts on the final results, so we demand the candidates and their supporters to stay calm."

He added that on Election Day a total of 928 polling sites were closed, of which 579 were closed prior to elections, 299 sites votes were not cast and 50 stations were declared closed by the election commission because of security reasons.

In reaction to the preliminary results, Mujib Rahman Rahimi, spokesman to Abdullah's electoral camp, said they expected a total of seven million votes including frauds, but IEC chairman's announcement of eight million votes was unexpected.

"We do not accept the results announced this evening by the IEC," Rahimi told TOLOnews.

According to the IEC runoff election timeline, the publication of the final results will be July 22.