KABUL (PAN): Leading candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah has claimed having concrete evidence of irregularities committed in the landmark presidential polls held on August 20.

At a news conference in Kabul on Tuesday, when partial results were unveiled by the Independent Election Commission, Abdullah showed journalists videos and photographs of what he called rigging in the vote.

"Under no circumstances, I'll allow anybody to decide the ballot on the basis of the anomalies committed," the former foreign minister declared, moments after the IEC announced the outcome of 10 percent of the votes counted so far.

According to the contestant, second behind the incumbent president in the initial results, thousands of other irregularities also marred the second presidential election in Afghanistan's history.

The photo evidence of fraud, he said, was obtained from the Taliban-infested Andar district of southern Ghazni province. In the photos, voters put ticks on ballot papers against the name of a certain contender.

"All I want to say is that we will not accept the huge fraud," vowed the ex-minister, who observed: "I hope the irregularities will be prevented." Abdullah believed the ECC would probe rigging charges.

While urging the global fraternity to guarantee the credibility of the process, Abdullah warned: "If the rigging is ignored this is the type of regime that will be imposed on Afghanistan for the next five years."

The preliminary results put President Hamid Karzai -- with 40% of the vote so far -- in a slight lead over Abdullah (38 percent). Only 10 percent of ballots had been calculated, the IEC secretary explained, revealing 21170 of the 555842 votes were found invalid.

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