25 October 2004	Monday	10 Ramazan 1425

KABUL, Oct 24: Hamid Karzai has won outright victory in Afghanistan's first presidential election according to preliminary results, the interim leader's supporters and chief rival said Sunday.

Mr Karzai, the urbane 46-year-old Pashtun tribal chief who has led Afghanistan with strong US backing for nearly three years, had the "secure majority of 50 per cent plus one", presidential aide Khaleeq Ahmad told AFP.

"We are very delighted that we have a secure majority now. And we will wait to celebrate until 100 per cent of the vote has been counted," Ahmad said. "We will celebrate when the results are officially announced and not before that."

As soon as Karzai's tally passed four million ballots, of an estimated eight million cast, at around 4:00pm (4:30pm PST), Karzai's campaign spokesman Hamid Elmi told AFP: "We have a simple majority. This is exactly what we want."

Karzai's chief rival, Yunus Qanooni, was swift to acknowledge Karzai's majority, 15 days after the landmark ballot drew millions across the rugged land to vote for the first time in their lives.

"In order to respect the nation's will, based on the numbers announced up to now, we consider Karzai the winner," Mr Qanooni's spokesman, Sayed Hamid Noori, told AFP.

"There were lots of cases of fraud and irregularities, which we reported. But as our candidate Mr Qanooni has said, we shall respect the will of people even though there was fraud."

Mr Noori said Qanooni's acceptance of the result was also an effort to "avoid violence and to respect the national interests of the country".-AFP