KABUL: Incumbent Hamid Karzai on Wednesday pulled further ahead of his main rival in the race for the Afghan presidency, based on the latest results unveiled by the country's election commission.

Total results released so far amount to about 17 percent of the ballots cast in only Afghanistan's second direct presidential election, which was held last Thursday and has been overshadowed by claims of massive fraud.

Out of 998,484 votes counted, Karzai won 422,137 and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah 330,751, Daud Najafi, chief electoral officer at the Independent Election Commission (IEC), told a news conference.

Those results handed Karzai 42.3 percent of votes announced and Abdullah 33.1 percent, widening the incumbent's lead of only two percent on Tuesday.

Popular Kabul lawmaker Ramazan Bashardost scored 108,156 and former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani 27,697 votes, Najafi added.