Early poll count shows Afghan opposition leader top
By Sayed SalahuddinKABUL (Reuters) - With about a fifth of votes counted nationwide in Afghanistan's legislative elections, opposition leader Yunus Qanuni headed the field on Sunday in a race for one of 33 national assembly seats in the capital Kabul.
A preliminary count showed Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, a factional leader and a close Qanuni ally, second, and Ramazan Bashardost, a French-educated technocrat who quit the cabinet last year complaining of a failure to deal with corruption, third.
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Afghan election workers hold onto ballot papers at a poll counting centre in Kabul, Afghanistan September 25, 2005. (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood) |
While the election commission said only about 20 percent of the vote had been counted, the figures so far in Kabul could still be indicative since votes from various parts of the city are supposed to be mixed together before being counted.
While all candidates in the elections stood as independents rather than as party representatives, Qanuni, runner up in the presidential elections, heads a loose bloc of parties opposed to Karzai called the Understanding Front.
Qanuni he has predicted the Understanding Front will win half the seats in the 249-seat national assembly.
A senior Northern Alliance leader who helped U.S.-led forces topple the Taliban in 2001, Qanuni served as interior and education minister under Karzai. He has warned that his parliamentary bloc might not approve all of Karzai's cabinet.
Analysts expect the parliament to be conservative, fragmented and locally focused and possibly more on a hindrance than a help to Karzai's attempts to strengthen central rule.
About 6.8 million of Afghanistan's more than 12 million registered voters cast ballots on Sept. 18 for national assembly candidates and councils in 34 provinces.
The turnout was significantly lower than in the presidential vote, with analysts blaming the presence of warlords on the ballot and disappointment at the slow post-war reconstruction.
Kabul's turnout was only about 36 percent.
Provisional results are expected by the first week of October and final, official results by Oct. 22.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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