Afghan presidential election heads to runoff in June

No candidate won enough votes to secure outright victory in the first round of the Afghan presidential poll, the election commission said Thursday, according to CNN. 

The election will proceed to a runoff on June 14 between former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, the two candidates who received the highest number of votes.

In the first-round, in which around 7 millions Afghans voted on April 5, Abdullah secured 45% of the vote, while Ghani got 31.6%. A candidate needs to receive more than 50% of the votes to win the first round and avoid a runoff.

Preliminary results had been announced in late April, but had to be finalized after investigations into fraud complaints.

The final results from the runoff will be announced on July 22, the election commission said.

It's the third election since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and is set to be the first democratic transfer of power in the fragile, war-torn country.