Kabul ( AsiaNews) - In the race for Afghanistan's next president, Abdullah Abdullah , a former foreign minister of the Karzai government is in the lead. According to early exit polls released yesterday by the Independent Electoral Commission, the candidate of the National Coalition of Afghanistan (NCA , Islamic democracy) is in the lead with 41.9 % of the vote, followed closely by Ashraf Ghani with 37.6% . For the moment, Zalmai Rassoul, considered heir to the outgoing president, has stopped at just 9.8%.
A total of 7 million people went to the polls on April 5 to elect a new president of Afghanistan. The threats of possible Taliban attacks did not stop voters, thanks to the stringent security measures taken by the government.
So far, the Commission has scrutinized about 500 thousand votes in 26 provinces out of a total 34 . The final results are expected by April 24 . If no candidate were to emerge with a majority of more than 50 % , the two most voted will take part in a run-off on May 28 .
Announcing the first data Ahmad Yousuf Nouristani, President of the Independent Electoral Commission, was keen to stress that these are partial results and that " the front runner could easily change in the days to come".
In addition to fear of attacks, the greatest fear is that of possible fraud. The Commission has already reported that it had received 1,892 complaints with evidence, of which 1,382 by phone. In general, only 870 are considered "serious".
At the 2009 election, Abdullah Abdullah contested a run off against Hamid Karzai, but had requested a change in the electoral commission, which he accused of fraud in favor of Karzai during the first round of elections. Abdullah's withdrawal automatically handed victory to the outgoing president.