Ballots counted

KABUL, Afghanistan – Hamid Karzai’s rivals said Sunday it was too early to call Afghanistan’s inaugural presidential election, despite the interim leader’s dominant showing after three days of vote-counting.

The U.S.-backed incumbent’s main challenger, Yunus Qanooni, insisted that a full count and a proper investigation by a panel of foreign experts on fraud allegations could yet put him in the running. He said his acceptance of the final results depends on the thoroughness of the probe.

Millions of Afghans braved Taliban threats and poor weather to cast ballots on Oct. 9, a democratic experiment that many hope will end a quarter-century of fighting.

Observers and officials acknowledge teething troubles, especially with ink used to mark people’s hands to prevent them voting more than once. But Karzai’s opponents claim there was widespread fraud.

Of 905,887 votes tallied by Sunday evening, Karzai, Afghanistan’s interim president since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, had captured 60.2 percent.

Almost all of Karzai’s 15 opponents have complained of cheating to the panel of foreign experts set up to head off their threat to boycott the results.

Establishing the panel delayed the start of counting, and Qanooni said in an interview that the figures would turn in his favor as more votes are tallied.

Karzai enjoys strong support among Afghanistan’s traditional rulers, the Pashtuns, and is seen as a bridge to its international backers and a leader untainted by its bloody past.