Afghan President Hamid Karzai won 54.6% of the vote in last month's presidential poll while his main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, trailed with 27.8%, the country's Independent Election Commission announced on Wednesday.

The electoral body announced the complete preliminary results for the first time since Afghans voted in a landmark presidential vote on August 20, but claims of vote-rigging have prompted a partial recount, delaying final results for weeks.

The extent of the fraud is so massive, so extensive that the EEC’s capability remains to be seen and tested Abdullah Abdullah, Afghani presidential candidate

"When we announce the final results then we will know who the future president of Afghanistan is," Afghan Independent Election Commission official Daud Najafi said during a press conference in Kabul, without setting a date for the final announcement.

 
Najafi said the turnout in the controversial vote was just 38.7%, substantially lower than the last presidential election in 2004.
 
"Total number of voters 5,918,741," Najafi told reporters.

The figure raises questions about the credibility of the process and confirms widespread fears about the effectiveness of a concerted and violent campaign by Taliban-linked insurgents aimed at keeping people from voting.

Fraud investigation

Any elation the Karzai camp might enjoy has been marred by EU vote monitors who on Wednesday upped the ante, saying as many as 1.5 million votes could have been fraudulent.

By Claire Billet / Gulliver CRAGG Investigation is underway into electoral fraud in Afghanistan. Currently incumbent Hamid Karzai has a comfortable lead but evidence of fraud means some votes will have to be recounted and that could undermine his re-election

Dimitra Ioannou, the head of the EU Election Observation Mission to Afghanistan, told reporters that out of the 1.5 million votes they identified as suspicious, 1.1 million were cast for Karzai and only 300,000 for his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

Karzai's team hit back immediately, branding the EU announcement "irresponsible".

"Hamid Karzai's election campaign team believes today's announcement of the number of suspected votes by the head and deputy head of the EU election monitoring commission is partial, irresponsible and in contradiction with Afghanistan's constitution," his team said in a statement.

"According to the constitution of Afghanistan, addressing the electoral complaints is the responsibility of the Election Complaints Commission," Karzai's campaign team added, referring to a recount of votes from about 10% of polling stations ordered by the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (EEC).

The incumbent's main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, said: "The extent of the fraud is so massive, so extensive that the EEC’s capability remains to be seen and tested", Abdullah Abdullah said.

Abdullah told FRANCE 24 in a telephone interview: "President Karzai has to realise that the extent of the fraud which has been committed is now known to people in Afghanistan and the international community”.

 
Electoral officials have said that hundreds of thousands of votes could be quarantined for investigations, which could take two to three weeks, delaying the announcement of the victor.

If a recount is ordered and Karzai is found to have less than the required 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff poll against the candidate who arrived in second place, in this case Abdullah Abdullah.