Investigators have clear evidence of ballot-stuffing in Afghanistan's landmark presidential election but not on a scale that would overturn interim leader Hamid Karzai's victory, a senior official said Tuesday.
The remarks were the clearest indication yet that the election board will acknowledge irregularities during the Oct. 9 election -- the key condition set by Karzai's closest rival for conceding defeat.
"Some boxes were so obviously stuffed that we don't believe they were legitimately cast votes," Ray Kennedy, the deputy chairman of the joint UN-Afghan electoral commission, told reporters.
With almost all of the approximately 8.2 million votes cast in the Oct. 9 election already counted, the US-backed incumbent has secured an unassailable lead and the majority needed to avoid a run-off.
But the electoral board insists it will wait for the results of investigations into fraud allegations brought by Karzai's rivals before calling the result.
Officials say that could take until the weekend.
Kennedy said there would "almost inevitably be some [ballot] boxes excluded from the count" because of irregularities, but agreed that even if every quarantined ballot was thrown out, it wouldn't be enough to push Karzai below the 50-percent mark.
"That's my sense at this point," he said.
With 97.7 percent of ballots counted, Karzai has 55.4 percent of the votes, 39 points ahead of his closest rival, former Education Minister Yunus Qanooni.
Qanooni and the third-placed candidate, former Planning Minister Mohammed Mohaqeq, have refused to concede defeat, claiming that Karzai was ahead only thanks to massive fraud.
Still, Qanooni has said he is willing to make a "sacrifice" and accept the result to avoid fanning tensions in the country -- provided the irregularities are publicly acknowledged.
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