Afghanistan Delays Announcement Of Final Presidential Results

Afghanistan -- Afghan election workers count ballots at an Independent Election Commission office in Herat, April 17, 2014

KABUL -- Afghan election officials have delayed the announcement of final results from the first round of a presidential poll last month to succeed outgoing President Hamid Karzai.

Independent Election Commission spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said authorities still had not received a final assessment of fraud complaints from the April 5 vote.

The announcement of final results is likely be delayed by one or two days.

A runoff is expected because no candidate is thought to have more than 50 percent needed to win the presidency outright.

Partial results released by Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission have shown former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah as the front-runner.

Abdullah’s closest competitor is Ashraf Ghani, a former Afghan finance minister and World Bank official.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP