KABUL (PAN): The UN-backed electoral watchdog Monday submitted the findings of an investigation into alleged irregularities in the troubled presidential elections, held on August 20, to the Independent Election Commission later in the day.

Ahmed Muslim Khurram, a spokesman for the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), told Pajhwok Afghan News they handed over the probe outcome to IEC at 5pm. The ECC looked into fraud allegations, quarantined ballot boxes and sample boxes.

But he skirted the query if the investigation affected the preliminary returns already unveiled by IEC. Western media reports say President Hamid Karzai's share of the votes has slumped below the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a runoff.

IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor, earlier, said: "We will announce the certified election outcome 24-36 hours after the ECC findings reach us."

As the poll stalemate persists, Noor assured the commission would do its bit to announce the final result as soon as possible. However, he observed it would be premature to comment on the final result without looking into the ECC findings. If the vote went to the second round, Noor said, they were ready for conducting the runoff.

According to preliminary returns, Karzai is in the lead with nearly 55 percent of the vote, followed by Dr. Abdullah with 28 percent. But Karzai's share of the vote is said to have slipped to 47 percent as a result of a recount of suspect ballot boxes.

On Saturday, an influential American lawmaker and the French foreign minister met the president in an effort to resolve the ballot dispute. US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry and Bernard Kouchner underlined a middle path to end the stalemate.

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