Karzai on course for majority win
Five-year term ahead unless opponents' appeals upheld
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- Vote counting in Afghanistan's historic elections is almost finished, with incumbent President Hamid Karzai on course to win a simple majority.
About 95 percent of the ballots from the country's first-ever direct presidential election have been counted and Karzai is sitting comfortably with 55 percent.
His closest rival, former education minister Yunis Qanooni is trailing by almost 40 percent and reports say he will accept the outcome.
Karzai must win more than half the votes to avoid a runoff.
Election officials have said the final result will not be announced until all votes have been counted and a fraud probe is completed.
Qanooni and several of the president's challengers have said there was evidence of ballot boxes being filled with Karzai votes in at least four provinces.
The election board is working through 285 formal complaints concerning the ink used, polling station personnel and underage voters.
Hamed Elmi, Karzai's campaign spokesman, said Sunday's figures confirmed optimism that the interim leader would triumph when the final results are released.
"I'm going to see his excellency this evening to see when to start the celebrations," Elmi told The Associated Press.
"We were up against 17 candidates, but the people were behind us. We will sleep soundly tonight."
But Karzai's rivals said they were reserving judgment pending the investigation.
"We are waiting for the international experts to decide on the fraud and cheating. Until then, we have nothing else to say," Taj Mohammed Wardak, Qanooni's running mate, told AP.
Ethnic Hazara chieftain Mohammed Mohaqeq, who is currently running in third place, also refused to concede.
"It's too early to judge the result now," he told AP.
Another main rival, Abdul Rashid Dostum, had said days ago that he accepted Karzai as the winner.
Washington handpicked Karzai to head an interim government set up after U.S. and Afghan resistance forces overthrew the hardline Islamic regime in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden.
Karzai enjoys strong support among Afghanistan's traditional rulers, the Pashtuns, and is seen as a bridge to its international backers and a leader untainted by its bloody past.
Few independent observers believe that Qanooni, a member of the ethnic Tajik minority, could command a country deeply fractured by years of tribal and ethnic warfare.
About 1,000 people, many of them insurgents, have died in political violence so far this year.
The U.S. military, which has 18,000 soldiers hunting al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts in Afghanistan, has hailed the election as a blow to the rebels because their threats to sabotage the vote proved hollow.
The United Nations-backed election, which cost about $200 million to stage, generated huge interest.
Despite intimidation by ousted Taliban insurgents and bad weather, election officials say about 8 million of the 10.5 million registered voters cast ballots.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
