Karzai set to win Afghan presidential election by a landslide

0 Comments | Asian Political News, Oct 18, 2004

KABUL, Oct. 14 Kyodo

Interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai is headed for a landslide victory in the country's first direct presidential election, backed by a strong showing even in the northern province of Kunduz where he does not maintain ethnic ties, early returns show Thursday.

Vote counting began in the morning at five of eight counting centers across the country.

In Kunduz Province, where an estimated 3 percent of votes have been counted, Karzai led his opponent Abdul Rashid Dostum by 54.7 percent to 20.1 percent.

Kunduz is the home ground of Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek strongman. But the poll shows Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun from the south, is immensely popular even outside his home province.

Former Education Minister Yunus Qanooni, who was expected to be Karzai's closest challenger, came in third with 14.4 percent of the votes counted.

According to an exit poll conducted by a private U.S. organization, the U.S.-backed Karzai has a lead of more than 40 percentage points over Qanooni and is expected to win a simple majority required to avoid a runoff.

Several more days are needed before a majority of votes cast will be counted. The final results will be in by the end of this month.

Vote counting was delayed due to a mix-up over the kind of ink used to mark voters' thumbs that prompted 14 presidential candidates to boycott the election.

Acting upon complaints from all candidates but Karzai, an independent inquiry team is looking into the suspected irregularities.