BOTH SIDES CLAIM AFGHAN VICTORY.

BOTH President Hamid Karzai and his chief rival Abdullah Abdullah claimed Afghan election victory yesterday.

Karzai, whose power is traditionally in the south, has been shaken by poor voter turn-out in Helmand and Kandahar.

That put a question mark over his presidency as Abdullah said initial poll results showed he had more than half of the vote.

He went further and accused Karzai's campaign team of vote tampering and of bullying voters outside polling stations. In the second general election since 2001, millions of voters defied Taliban threats to cast their ballots.

Pre-election polls showed Karzai was likely to win but not by enough to avoid a run-off against Abdullah.

If Karzai fails to win more than 50% of the vote he will face a run-off in October. Yesterday Abdullah, a former Northern Alliance man who helped oust the Taliban, said: "I'm ahead. Initial results from the provinces show that I have more than 50% of the vote."

If voting goes to a second round Afghanistan is under threat from a wave of violence.

During the campaign, Abdullah drew crowds in the tens of thousands in mainly Tajik areas of the north, his main support base. Karzai relies more on the ethnic majority Pashtun south.

CAPTION(S):

PRESIDENT Karzai CHALLENGE Abdullah