Breaking Afghanistan News: It's President Karzai Again

The Latest from Afghanistan: The Election

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We should never say, "Told you so", but....

After 24 hours of bits and pieces on the Afghanistan election, with  international bodies trying to put together a general picture of a satisfactory election amidst an estimated turnout of 40-50 percent and a steady drip of stories of electoral manipulation and fraud, the smoke (white? black? grey?) in favour of Afghanistan's current President is seen:

President Hamid Karzai is cruising toward a first-round victory in Afghanistan's presidential election, tallying 71 percent of the 4.5 million votes counted so far, knowledgeable sources revealed on Saturday.

As of 4pm today, one source confided to Pajhwok Afghan News, more than 4.5 million ballots had been calculated hitherto. Of the 4,514,084 votes counted thus far, the incumbent has collected 3,244,196.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, main challenger to Karzai, bagged about a million votes, some 23 percent of the total calculated so far, the sources said. To be specific, he added, 1,029,467 votes went to the former foreign minister.

Ramazan Bashardost got 189,653 votes, Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmedzai 47,954 and Mirwais Yasini 2714. Another two million votes remain to be tallied from remote areas where Karzai was overwhelmingly supported.

Even if Abdullah were to collect 50 percent of the remaining votes, he could not force Karzai into a second-round election....

The information was reported to Pajhwok by a high-level party official who is watching the vote count. It was confirmed by a source from Karzai's office, who is also watching the count.