Abdullah ahead in Afghan vote tally

New partial results in Afghanistan’s presidential election released yesterday show candidate Abdullah Abdullah is still the front- runner, though a runoff election looks likely.

The winner will replace Hamid Karzai, the only president the country has known since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban, and will oversee a tumultuous period during which the US and Nato forces are expected to withdraw troops.

Abdullah and his closest competitor, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, have promised a fresh start and have vowed to sign a security pact with the US that Karzai refused to sign.