Afghan presidential vote counting continues

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Campaign teams for President Hamid Karzai and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah each positioned themselves on Friday as the winner of Afghanistan's presidential election, but the Independent Election Commission says it's too early to make any claims. This came just one day after millions of Afghans braved dozens of militant attacks to cast ballots.

Election campaign teams conducted informal counts as voting wrapped up in Afghanistan. They posted numbers at campaign headquarters, purportedly based on reports from their poll site observers.

Karzai's team said the president had won more than 50 percent of the vote, a result that would negate the need for a two-man runoff.

Waheed Omar, spokesman of Karzai's presidential campaign, said, "Our own assumption, based on all what we have heard and received and what we have seen so far, we are well ahead in the elections."

Karzai's main rival Abdullah, claims that government officials interfered with ballot boxes and, in some places, blocked monitors from inspecting boxes or their contents. Nonetheless, regardless of any alleged improprieties, Abdullah says preliminary results indicate that he is on course for victory.

Abdullah said, "As a whole, the fact that the election took place and that people participated, though in some parts with low turnout, that in itself was a step forward and the preliminary results are, as far as my campaign is concerned, I am in the lead."

Officials from the Independent Election Commission were busy across Afghanistan counting ballots on Friday. The commission said it was too early for any campaign to call itself the winner.

Though election officials previously indicated that preliminary results would be announced on Saturday, the chief electoral officer now says those results will not be made public until Tuesday.

Final official results aren't to be announced until early September.

Meanwhile, security remained tight on the streets of Kabul, the capital city, with Afghan police searching vehicles for weapons. At least 26 people were killed in election-related violence.