Karzai leads presidential vote count by significant margin; Dr. Abdullah states that he will not accept the results; Bashardost in third and Gilani in fourth position; 45 US soldiers lose their lives in August, as against 44 in July
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    • Incumbent President Hamid Karzai according to most accounts has taken a significant lead over his closest rival Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, securing over 45 per cent of the votes polled, as against 30 percent for Dr. Abdullah. Mr. Karzai needs to get over 50 percent of votes to avoid a run-off. Chief Electoral Officer Daud Ali Najafi told a news conference in Kabul on August 29 that 35 percent of the votes (2,146,643 ballots) had been tallied.

    Ramazan Bashardost was in the third position having secured 277,404 votes while Dr. Ashraf Ghani had bagged 48,375 votes. 73,499 votes were found invalid1. Dr. Abdullah on his part alleged fraud in the electoral process and stated that he would not accept the election results2.

    Meanwhile, 45 American soldiers were killed in August, making it the deadliest month since 2001 for US forces operating in the country. 44 US troops were killed in July3.

    Over 40 people were killed and up to 80 injured in a truck bomb explosion on August 25 in front of a construction company in Kandahar4. NATO forces also claimed that a missiles strike in a mountainous area in southeastern Afghanistan killed 35 Taliban insurgents belonging to the Haqqani network on August 295.

    In other developments, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited British troops stationed at Camp Bastion in the Helmand province during the week. Brown pledge to speed up the training of Afghan security forces “to take more responsibility for their own affairs6.”

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