Afghan president Hamid Karzai defends election integrity

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Afghan president Hamid Karzai has defended the integrity of the country's disputed election. But he admits some government officials were "partial" towards him, just as others were partial towards the other candidates.

For the very first time, Hamid Karzai seems to have suggested there were irregularities in the disputed election.

Hamid Karzai said, "There were some government officials who were partial towards me - very, very much. There were other government officials who were partial towards Dr Abdullah - very, very much."

And he said that if fraud was committed, it will be investigated fairly without prejudice.

While acknowledging the possibility of vote fraud, Karzai also called on the media and critics to respect the integrity of the election process.

Full preliminary results showed him with 54 percent of the vote. That's comfortably above the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff with his challenger Abdullah Abdullah.