KABUL: AUGUST 26 ELECTION PRELIMINARY RESULTS

UNCLAS KABUL 002575 DEPARTMENT FOR SRAP, SCA/FO, SCA/A, EUR/RPM STATE PASS TO AID FOR ASIA/SCAA USFOR-A FOR POLAD SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KDEM PGOV PREL AF SUBJECT: KABUL: AUGUST 26 ELECTION PRELIMINARY RESULTS REF: KABUL 2528 ¶1. (U) Partial preliminary results of Afghan elections as announced by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on August 26: Cumulative votes counted (August 25 & 26): 998,484 Valid votes: 941,797 Invalid Votes (double marked or no candidate properly marked): 38,160 Vote Counts Per Candidate: Karzai 422,137 Abdullah 330,711 Bashardost 108,158 Ghani 27,697 Yaseni 6,049 Mangal 4,631 Fana 4,465 Other candidates 37,949 ¶2. (U) This count represents 17.2 percent of total polling stations. ¶3. (U) Percent of stations counted per province (as of August 26): Kabul 18 percent Kapisa 46 percent Parwan 56 percent Wardak 41 percent Logar 16 percent Ghazni 10 percent Paktika 0 percent Paktya 18 percent Khost 5 percent Nangarhar 19 percent Laghman 0 percent Nuristan 2 percent Badakhshan 3 percent Takhar 25 percent Konduz 0 percent Balkh 0 percent Baghlan 0 percent Samangan 30 percent Jowzhjan 80 percent Sar-e-Pol 25 percent Faryab 16 percent Badghis 8 percent Herat 1 percent Farah 24 percent Nimroz 0 percent Helmand 0 percent Kandahar 12 percent Zabul 17 percent Uruzgan 3 percent Ghor 38 percent Bamyan 30 percent Panjshir 63 percent Dai Kundi 27 percent ¶4. (SBU) The most newsworthy event other than the release of the tallies was provided by Basherdost, who before the press conference began, stood up in the front row, brandished a copy of the election law, and objected to the authority of the IEC to release the results day by day. Dr. Najafi of the IEC quickly responded, brandishing his own copy of the law, and asserting that the process was indeed in compliance with the law. EIKENBERRY