The release of the latest polling results in Afghanistan's presidential elections shows that President Hamid Karzai has increased his lead over challenger Abdullah Abdullah. Mr Karzai now has 46 percent of the votes cast, as opposed to Dr Abdullah’s 31 percent.

Although one third of all the votes cast in the country’s recent presidential elections have now been counted, a definitive result will not be released for some time.

To achieve victory in the first round of voting, a presidential candidate must win more than 50 percent of all the votes cast. Should this not happen, a second round of voting will take place in October.

Photo of Hamid Karzai by OpenDemocracy (flickr)

Photo of Abdullah Abdullah from Wikimedia Commons