KABUL - The Independent Elections Commission (IEC) announced a third round of partial results Thursday evening with Abdullah Abdullah in the lead.

Head of IEC Ahmad Yousaf Nuristani revealed Abdullah leading with 43.8 percent, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai trailing behind with 32.9 percent and Zalmai Rassoul still behind with 11.7 percent.

Today's partial result announcement consisted of 82.59 percent of votes nationwide.

Presidential candidate Abdul Rab Rassoul Sayyaf is in fourth with 7.0 percent, Qutbuddin Helal carrying 2.8 percent, Gul Agha Sherzai with 1.6 percent, Daoud Sultanzoy with 0.5 percent and Hedayat Amin Arsala in last with 0.2 percent.

Total votes for today's partial result was 5,857,442; roughly six million.

The breakdown of the votes is as follows: Abdullah with 2,564,284; Ghani with 1,928,153; Rassoul with 652,116; Sayyaf with 409,879; Helal with 165,567; Sherzai with 96,407; Sultanzoy with 27,312; and Arsala with 13,724 votes.

Nuristani said there are 1,719 polling sites that are still being investigated. He adds that it is too soon to determine whether a runoff will take place or not.

"We cannot comment whether the election will go into a runoff, but we are ready if it does," he said. "And the two-day delay with preliminary results will not affect the final outcome."

Nuristani also added, that more frauds were conducted by IEC staff and that they will be dealt with by the legal and judicial institutions.

Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan's (FEFA) Chairman, Nadir Nadiri, said that the audits of suspicious ballots should be performed before presidential candidates and observers.

Leading presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah said in an interview with TOLOnews that IEC's reasoning behind the two-day delay with preliminary results is not adequate.

"Their reason behind it is not satisfactory," he said. "The remaining 17 percent will have a great impact

If elected as the next president of Afghanistan, Abdullah said he wants "the next government to be a symbol of national solidarity." (Tolonews)