PESHAWAR, Oct 8: Supporters of Afghan President Hamid Karzai have claimed overwhelming backing of refugee voters in Saturday's presidential elections. "We expect more than 80 per cent votes for President Karzai.

He will become the first popularly-elected president of Afghanistan," said leaders of a group campaigning for Mr Karzai, including Daud Arsala, Dr Humayun Shinwari, Arbab Khalil and Pir Haideri said.

Speaking at a press conference here on Friday, they claimed that President Karzai was very popular among the Afghan refugees living in Pakistan. They said they had been in Pakistan for three weeks now and during this period they had visited several refugee hosting areas in the NWFP, Balochistan and Islamabad to muster support for President Karzai.

"It is because of our vigorous campaign that the International Organization for Migration registered about 740,000 Afghan voters in (refugee) camps and cities in Pakistan", said chief of President Karzai's election campaign, while rejecting the charge that the IOM was supporting Mr Karzai.

He said that Mr Karzai's prospects for winning the polls were bright because he had proved his mettle during the past three years by confronting warlords, adding that Mr Karzai's popularity stemmed from his reconstruction efforts as well as the repatriation of million of refugees.

He lauded the Pakistani government for its immense support and said that it had provided adequate security to conduct the exercise successfully. He said that while it was a difficult task to hold the elections in a single day but foolproof arrangements had been made in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan to conduct the polls.

"Still, there could be some problems, because it is a huge exercise and it needs a massive infrastructure," he said. Mr Arsala said that the former Afghan King Mohammad Zahir Shah fully supported President Karzai.

He denied any of the campaigners for President Karzai had received any bribes and said: "We are all doing (everything in) this campaign at our own expense. "We are ready to face punishment if anyone can prove we took bribes."

To a question, he said that President Karzai had promised that he would do away with warlords and other criminals from Afghanistan, who he alleged were involved in mass killing of the Afghan people. "President Karzai is desperate to establish a national government in Afghanistan where representation would be given to all ethnic groups", Mr Arsala said.