Kabul, Aug 26 (DPA) Afghan President Hamid Karzai has significantly extended his lead over his challenger Abdullah Abdullah in the presidential election count, latest returns showed Wednesday.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) said that Karzai had won 44.8 percent of the votes counted so far. Former foreign minister Abdullah was on 35.1 percent.

The more than 9 percent spread compares with the 2-point lead which Karzai had in the initial returns reported on Tuesday.

The IEC said that just under 941,800 votes had been counted, or slightly more than 17 percent of the ballots cast in the Aug 20 election, so that it was still too early to make any projections about the final outcome.

Karzai’s tally by Wednesday evening was 422,137, to Abdullah’s 330,711.

The commission has said it expected to release the final results around Sep 17.

The figures mean Karzai might not get enough votes for an absolute majority in the first round. That would mean a run-off in early October between the top two candidates.

Abdullah has accused the Karzai camp of electoral fraud. By Tuesday almost 800 complaints had been made concerning the election and the count.