President Hamid Karzai's campaign team has claimed victory in the violence-scarred election in Afghanistan - a claim disputed by his main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah. The president's campaign manager said preliminary results showed there would be no need for a second round run-off.
"Initial results show that the president has got a majority," Deen Mohammad told Reuters, although he said it was the duty of the election commission to announce the official results. "We will not got to a second round. We have got a majority."
Mr Mohammad said the estimate of victory was based on reports from nearly 29,000 monitors the campaign had at polling stations throughout the country.
However, a spokesman for his chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, dismissed the claim, based on partial results they had received.
"It isn't true," said Fazl Sangcharaki. "We also say, 'Maybe we don't need a second round and Abdullah has won.'"
Mr Karzai, who is the favourite to win, must gain more than 50 per cent of the vote to avoid a second round run-off.
The Afghanistan Independent Election Commission said preliminary results would be announced on Tuesday, but full official results would not be available for several weeks.
The victory claims came after a wave of Taliban attacks across the country appeared to have frightened away voters on Thursday as observers predicted turn-out for the presidential elections could be as low as 10 per cent in some regions.
Co-ordinated assaults, rockets and bombs killed 26 people, including nine civilians, nine police and eight soldiers.
But officials said they were “satisfied” with the numbers voting nationwide and hoped the final turn-out would reach 50 per cent.
Gen David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, which covers Afghanistan, said the elections went “reasonably well”, adding that it was “premature” to make a final judgment on turn-out.
Speaking during a visit to London, Gen Petraeus said that of Afghanistan’s 6,519 polling stations, about 6,200 had been able to open and operate normally. But he conceded that election day was marked by “higher levels of violence than has been the case in recent days”.
Up to 17 million Afghans were eligible to choose from more than 30 candidates challenging President Hamid Karzai.
Observers said the turn-out in the most violent parts of the Pashtun tribal south could be 10 per cent. Pashtuns make up Afghanistan’s biggest ethnic grouping and the backbone of the insurgency. Their reluctance to vote could seriously undermine any new government.
One election observer said the numbers casting votes in the second city of Kandahar were “definitely very, very low” and significantly lower than in the more stable Tajik north.
A colonel in the Afghan army said voting in the southern border province of Paktika had been confined to town centres.
In Helmand, where British troops took heavy casualties during Operation Panther’s Claw to secure Taliban strongholds for voting, an observer said the turn-out was well below levels seen in the previous presidential election.
Zabul, another Pashtun province, was described as “eerily quiet” by one monitor.
In recent weeks the Taliban has called for a national boycott of the poll and threatened attacks on polling stations. People were told that they would have their fingers - stained with ink to show they had voted – cut off.
Rocket attacks were launched in Kandahar, Kunduz, and Wardak provinces as the polls opened. Militants stormed the northern town of Baghlan Afghan but were routed by Afghan security forces after heavy fighting.
The Afghan government tried to impose a media blackout on election day violence, fearing it would deter people from voting.
Mr Karzai said there were 73 security incidents in 15 provinces.
“The Afghan people dared rockets, bombs and intimidations and came out to vote,” he said.
“We will see what the turnout was. But they came out to vote – that’s great.”
He denied that a low turn-out would undermine the legitimacy of the poll.
Hanif Atmar, the minister of the interior, said: “We are satisfied with the participation of our people in the elections.
“Police assessments show that in more than 70 per cent of the country’s provinces, we observed the best kind of turn-out.
“In 30 per cent of provinces, despite threats, our people participated bravely in the elections.”
In the capital Kabul, where militants had launched three major assaults in six days, polling stations were quiet and the streets were empty of vehicles as security forces set up scores of checkpoints.
A total of 300,000 Afghan and international forces took part in the operation to secure the poll.
US President Barack Obama said: “We had what appears to be a successful election in Afghanistan despite the Taliban’s efforts to disrupt it.”
Gen Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Nato secretary-general, said: “Seen from a security point of view, the election has been a success. It has been conducted effectively.”
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