KABUL (Pajhwok): Presidential runner Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai on Monday asked the Independent Election Commission (IEC) to stop releasing further results until fraudulent votes were cleaned out.
Ghani expressed his concern a day after the IEC announced a second batch of partial results based on nearly 50 percent of votes tallied in all provinces, showing his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah has widened his lead over him.
Abdullah, a former foreign minister in President Hamid Karzai’s previous term, collected 44.4 percent (1536133) votes, with Ghani trailing at 33.2 percent (1146251).
Ahmadzai, a former finance minister, acknowledged to reporters in Kabul that the results were not final and could change because half of the votes still needed to be tallied.
