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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Search Search: Afghanistan caught in complex guessing game AFP - Friday, August 28 KABUL (AFP) - - As Afghans await the results of a bitterly contested election, their country is caught in a complex guessing game about who will be their next president and how solid his mandate will be. ADVERTISEMENT The gap between the main rivals in the race for the top job -- President Hamid Karzai and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah -- appears to be widening in the incumbent's favour. Just over 17 percent, or nearly one million ballots, have been counted and made public, showing the Western-backed Karzai with 42.3 percent so far, and Abdullah on 33.1 percent. The Independent Election Commission (IEC), which is in charge of the count, said Thursday it would not be releasing any more figures before Saturday. Counting would continue Thursday, said IEC spokeswoman Marzia Siddiqi, giving no reasons for the cancellation of Thursday's release. Friday is a holiday in Islamic Afghanistan. While IEC officials have been eager to stress that nothing should be extrapolated from the figures released so far, they appear to suggest turnout was low -- around 30-35 percent -- raising questions about the legitimacy of the man declared president when final results are known in mid-September. Afghanistan's second presidential election and a parallel vote for provincial councillors were held on August 20 under the shadow of scores of Taliban attacks. Just two hours after the first results were released in Kabul on Tuesday, the southern city of Kandahar was rocked by a suicide car bomb that killed more than 40 people and bore all the hallmarks of a Taliban attack. Views on the legitimacy of the vote are mixed, with some commentators insisting such low turnout raises serious questions about what mandate a president with 50 percent of around five million votes can claim. Others are as adamant that turnout of around five million -- of 17 million registered -- is proof Afghans are engaged in the democratic process and sent a clear message to the Taliban that their intimidation tactics were futile. "I think Afghans have shown very clearly to the Taliban that despite the fear that was created before the election -- which was massive, with night letters, threats, attacks -- despite all of that they wanted to vote," said Nader Nadery, of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. "Even in very volatile environments, where there was fighting -- Baghlan, Logar, Paktia, Zabul, Helmand -- when the fighting stopped people went to polling stations and asked to be able to vote. "Compare that response proportionately to the level of threat and fear from the Taliban, and the message to the Taliban is that your tactics haven't worked," he said. In some areas of the country, however, the campaign of intimidation worked well enough to keep voters away almost entirely. In some militant strongholds, including Logar province south of Kabul, residents said turnout was negligible. "In my village there are more than 6,000 people. Only seven voted," mechanic Mansour Stanikzai told AFP in the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam. Analyst Haroun Mir said the Taliban's tactics successfully derailed the election and undermined the democratic process, which the international community has been eager to promote as suitable for the feudal, war-ravaged nation. "The reason we had the election was to give legitimacy to the government, and we have failed in that goal," Mir said. "The Taliban has cancelled it out, they forced people to remain in their homes," he said, adding the legitimacy of the final result "is put in question." He said the slow release of the results should give Karzai and his international backers time to cut a compromise with Abdullah. "We could end up with a power-sharing situation," he told AFP. "It is segregated -- Abdullah in the north, Karzai in the south. "This election has shown that Afghanistan remains strictly divided," he said, adding: "We are heading for political crisis." As the number of complaints -- 790 on polling day alone -- was being used by Abdullah to lambast the whole process as fraudulent in favour of his opponent, ordinary Afghans said they expected some problems in one of the world's most corrupt countries. "There is no doubt that there would be a lot of fraud but a lot of the people I know and work with said they were supporting Karzai," said 28-year-old Kabul telecommunications engineer Mohammad Akbar. Time spent waiting for the results was "extremely boring," he said, but added: "There is a lot of concern and worry that when the election result becomes final, whether or not it will be accepted." Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Sign in to recommend this article » 0 users recommend Related Articles: Asia Pacific China endorses resolution on climate changeAP - 2 hours 55 minutes ago AP NewsAlertAP - Friday, August 28 Ex-health minister in Malaysia sacked over sex tapeAFP - Friday, August 28 East Timor rights abusers unpunished, Amnesty saysAP - Friday, August 28 US to Malaysia: Stop human trafficking quicklyAP - Friday, August 28 Enlarge Photo Afghanistan caught in complex guessing game Most Popular – Asia Pacific Viewed Profile of swine flu begins to emerge: study Microsoft apologizes for photo gaffe Ciudad Juarez, deadliest city in the world: watchdog Singer Chris Brown sentenced for Rihanna assault Jackson killed by drugs cocktail: court View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. No. 199700735D). All Rights Reserved. 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