Afghan tallies have Karzai lead widening

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Vote tallies released Saturday show Afghan President Hamid Karzai has extended his lead in Afghanistan's presidential election.

CNN said Independent Election Commission voting tallies have Karzai ahead with 940,558 votes, while his nearest competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, trails with 638,924 votes to date.

With 35 percent of the votes cast in Afghanistan's Aug. 20 election already counted, third place in the electoral race is being held by Ramazan Bashardost with 277,404 votes.

A candidate needs to earn 50 percent of the total votes to avoid a runoff election between the top two candidates, CNN said.

Independent Election Commission director Dauod Ali Najafi said Karzai's current vote tally means the incumbent candidate has earned 46.3 percent of all counted votes.

The Voice of America said in comparison, Abdullah has earned more than 31 percent of the counted votes.

CNN said final results of the presidential election will likely not be released until September.