(VOVworld) – Former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani is leading the race to replace Hamid Karzai as president of Afghanistan with 56.44 percent of the votes, according to preliminary results from Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission (IEC).

Ashraf Ghani has won Afghanistan’s presidential elections (Photo: AP)

Ghani’s rival Abdullah Abdullah won nearly 44 percent of the votes. IEC head Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani said at a news conference in Kabul that more than 8 million people cast ballots in the presidential election over the past 2 days, which far exceeded the authorities’ expectations. Mr. Nuristani stressed that the results are not final and acknowledged that there had been “some technical mistakes in the overall process” and that there is a chance of a change in the figures. Afghanistan had to hold a 2^nd round of voting when no candidate won a clear majority of votes on the first ballot.