Ghani leads in Afghanistan presidential polls: prelim. count

Preliminary results have placed Afghanistan's former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani in the lead... to become the country's next head of state. The Independent Election Commission gave Ghani 56-point-4 percent of the vote... to his rival Abdullah Abdullah's 43.5 percent in the June 14th presidential run-off. Abdullah's campaign has angrily rejected the results, calling it a "coup against people's votes". Both camps have questioned the validity of the ballot. Votes are being re-checked at more than 7,000 polling stations, or about a third of the centers. Final results are set to be released later this month, on July 22nd.