KABUL - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) announced partial results on Sunday with presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah in the lead.
IEC Chief Mohammad Yousuf Nuristani announced that Abdullah Abdullah is in the lead with 44.4 percent with Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai trailing with 33.2 percent and Zalmai Rassoul falling behind with 10.4 percent.
"Today's announcement is not final," Nuristani said. "There will be changes in the results as counting continues."
The partial result consisted of 49.67 percent of votes. This makes up for roughly 3.5 million votes nationwide.
Nuristani added that the results were made up of clean and genuine votes.
Of the 49.67 percent announced, 10 percent of this was from the initial partial result broadcasted on April 13, 2014.
After the proclamation, leading presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah said in an interview with TOLOnews that there have not been talks about creating any sort of coalition.
"I have not met with Ashraf Ghani in respect to forming a coalition," Abdullah said.
A little after runner-up Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said in an interview with TOLOnews that today's results will change.
"Results will change once all complaints have been addressed by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC)," Ghani said.
He added that the IEC still has not released the total number of votes nationwide.
Results for the remaining presidential candidates are as followed: Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf 7.6 percent, Qutbuddin Helal 2.7 percent, Gul Agha Sherzai 1.6 percent, Daoud Sultanzoy 0.5 percent and Hedayat Amin Arsala with 0.2 percent.
Nuristani reassured the public that preliminary results will be announced as scheduled.
"We will do our best to announce preliminary results on April 24," he said. "Our employees are working two shifts to ensure that preliminary results are announced as scheduled." (Tolonews)