The European Union on Friday called on Hamid Karzai and his chief rival, Abdullah Abdullah, to refrain from claiming victory in Afghanistan's presidential elections and work on promoting national unity and stability instead, according to dpa. "At this time, we would encourage all the candidates to respect the electoral process and refrain from premature announcements on possible outcomes," the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, said in a statement. Sweden, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, also called "on all stakeholders involved to continue to respect the electoral process and promote national unity and stability in Afghanistan." The incumbent president and his former foreign minister have both declared themselves the winner of Thursday's poll, despite the fact that the Afghan electoral commission only plans to release preliminary results next week. "Based on information we received from our campaign offices and voting sites, I can say for sure that we are in the lead," said Haji Din Mohammad, chief of frontrunner President Hamid Karzai's campaign office. "This claim is completely baseless because the result that we have obtained shows that Dr Abdullah got 62 per cent and Hamid Karzai got 32 per cent," replied the spokesman of Karzai's main rival. The EU, which is a major donor to Afghanistan, also congratulated organizers and the people of Afghanistan for defying the Taliban insurgency and taking part in Thursday's vote. "While deploring the loss of life, the European Union hails the personal courage and the commitment to democracy of all those Afghans that yesterday, under challenging circumstances, took part in the governance of their country. "The EU furthermore praises the efforts of the Afghan and international security forces, that helped make the elections possible," the Swedish presidency said. The EU's monitoring mission in Afghanistan planned to issue its preliminary findings on the elections on Saturday morning.
