[Al Arabiya Latest] Afghan president Hamid Karzai pulled further ahead of his main rival in the race for the Afghan presidency, based on the latest results unveiled by the country's election commission on Saturday as Britain's prime minister made a surprise visit to troops based in the country. Total results released so far come from 35 percent of polling stations used in only Afghanistan's second direct presidential election, which was held on Aug. 20 and has been overshadowed by claims of massive fraud.
Karzai was leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, by 46.3 percent to 31.4 percent with votes from around a third of all polling stations counted.
Karzai needs to win more than 50 percent to avoid a second round run-off.
Out of 2.32 million valid votes counted, Karzai won 940,558 and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah 638,924, Daud Najafi, chief electoral officer at the Independent Election Commission (IEC), told a news conference.