KABUL: Afghan election officials say President Hamid Karzai has 54.6 percent of the country's presidential vote, according to final, preliminary vote counts.

The election still has not been certified as final, though. A U.N.-backed complaints commission is examining thousands of potentially fraudulent votes from the Aug. 20 election.

If the commission invalidates enough votes, Karzai's returns could drop below 50 percent, forcing him into a two-man runoff with top challenger Abdullah Abdullah.

Fraud accusations have tainted the election. The European Union says its team counted about 1.5 million suspicious ballots among the 5.5 million released before Wednesday's final vote totals.

Ballot boxes are stored at the Independent Election Commission in Kabul. Ballots from 10 percent of polling stations in Afghanistan's presidential election are to be recounted because of evidence of fraud, officials said Tuesday, exacerbating fears of protracted turmoil.