Karzai rival concedes defeat

Hamid Karzai's main rival for the Afghan presidency conceded defeat yesterday with less than six per cent of the vote count remaining.

A spokesman said Yunus Qanuni would accept Mr Karzai's victory despite irregularities in the October 9 election - Afghanistan's first ever direct presidential ballot.

"We accept in the interests of the nation, because we don't want to face another crisis," Sayed Hamid Noori told Reuters when asked if Mr Qanuni was conceding.

The move comes a day after an American woman and an Afghan girl died from wounds suffered in a Taliban suicide attack in a popular Kabul shopping street.

With under six per cent of the votes left to count, incumbent Karzai remained on course to win a simple majority to avoid a run-off against the second-placed Qanuni with 16.2 per cent.

"They should be finished by today and by tomorrow, probably the total boxes would have been finished and reconciled and counted," said Reginald Austin, head of the Joint Electoral Management Body's technical and logistics operations.

Several ballot boxes were set aside for an investigation into complaints of ballot-stuffing and multiple voting, but the UN spokesman said an investigative panel recommended most of them should be released for counting.