Afghan polls head for Abdullah-Ghani run-off

Afghanistan's presidential election is set for a second-round vote, preliminary results showed yesterday, as opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah and former academic Ashraf Ghani both failed to secure a decisive victory.
"Based on our results, it appears that the election goes to the second round," Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission, told a press conference in Kabul.
Abdullah, a former foreign minister, secured 44.9 percent of the vote, with his main rival Ghani on 31.5 percent.
The final official result is set to be announced on May 14 after a period for adjudication of hundreds of complaints over alleged fraud. As no candidate gained more than 50 percent, a run-off between the two leading names is required under the Afghan constitution.