(CNN) — In Afghanistan’s ancestral presidential election, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah is heading a early earnings from final week’s voting, a country’s Independent Election Commission authority pronounced Sunday.
Abdullah has 41.9% of a vote, according to Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, who cautioned that it was too early to tell if a singular claimant would get a infancy of a opinion indispensable to win a presidency but a runoff.
Former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani was second with 37.6% of a vote, officials said.
Ballots are being hand-counted opposite a nation, and formula will take time to tally.
About 7 million Afghans voted in a elections on Apr 5, in a country’s initial approved send of presidential power, selecting a inheritor to effusive President Hamid Karzai. He is constitutionally compulsory to step down.
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A vast series of Afghans incited out final week, in a third selecting given a tumble of a Taliban in 2001. Voter registration started roughly a year ago and 2.5 million names were combined to a electoral roll. According to a selecting commission, polling hours were extended to concede everybody in line to vote.
“Today we came here to name my subsequent boss and we wish whoever it is … is a good person, who will assistance a people and move changes to Afghanistan,” a voter during a polling hire told CNN.
Another, in Kabul, pronounced a boss contingency secure a war-torn nation.
“We need a good boss so a bombings and fight stops,” a voter said. “I wish my children to go to propagandize but fear.”
While Afghans expel their ballots, there was complicated confidence in a capital, Kabul, and via a nation. The Taliban had threatened to interrupt a routine and retaliate all concerned in a election.
About 20 people were killed in assault opposite a republic on Election Day, Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Umer Daudzai told reporters, and during slightest 43 people were bleeding in attacks targeting voting centers. Most of a wounded, he said, were civilians.
Abdullah told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in February that if he won a presidency, he would pointer an agreement to keep general army in Afghanistan and assist dollars entrance into a nation.
NATO infantry are scheduled to pull down from Afghanistan by a finish of a year.
Karzai has refused to pointer a shared agreement, also famous as a Status of Forces Agreement.
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CNN’s Anna Coren, Masoud Popalzai and Qadir Sediqi contributed to this report.