Partial Results Show Karzai Winning Afghan Poll

Afghan President Hamid Karzai

KABUL (Reuters) -- Partial results issued for last month's Afghan presidential election give incumbent Hamid Karzai 54.1 percent of the vote, the first time he has been shown with enough votes to win in a single round.

The results, announced by the Independent Election Commission with 91.6 percent of polling stations tallied, give Karzai's main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, 28.3 percent of the vote.

The commission said it had set aside results from 600 polling stations where it suspects irregularities.

Earlier on September 8, a separate watchdog, the Electoral Complaints Commission, said it had found evidence of fraud in the election.

It ordered the IEC to recount votes from polling stations where a single candidate received more than 95 percent of the votes, or where more than 600 votes were cast, the most that could be cast a single station.