However, the
The announcement came hours before the AIEC was due to issue a preliminary final tally of the votes.
Phillippe Morillon, head of the EU observer team, said his team believed 1.5 million votes were suspicious, including 1.1 million cast for Karzai and 300,000 cast for his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
The figures issued last week, Karzai had slightly more than 3 million votes, or 54.3 percent of the 5.54 million valid votes counted.
He said fraud had been carried out by 'unscrupulous, overzealous supporters from every camp", and that fraudulent ballots needed to be removed from the count before any result could be considered final.
"Any claim for any count or of victory will be premature and not credible," he said.
In a statement the mission said EU was gravely concerned at the irregularities occurred in the August 20 polls and they had informed the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) about their concerns. It further read the vote-rigging affected hundreds of polling stations.
"We are not saying that all the votes are cast on fraud. It proves an enquiry covering every polling station where fraud is occurred must be carried out," said Philippe.
When asked about legitimacy of the elections he replied the legitimacy of the elections was not only important for the Afghans but it was also important for the international community.
Syed Fazil Sancharaki, a spokesman for Dr Abdullah Abdullah's campaign office welcomed the EU observation, saying contrary to the IEC assessment, the mission called for revision of actually 25-30 percent of the votes instead of 10 percent.
While, Hamid Karzais Election Campaign Team believed the announcement of suspected votes was partial, irresponsible and in contradiction with
In a statement, the team said according to the Constitution addressing the electoral complaints is the responsibility of the Election Complaints Commission.
"As per the Electoral Law of Afghanistan, the role of national and international monitors is to monitor the election process and refer their findings to the Independent Election Commission and the Election Complaints Commission.
The Karzais campaign team called on all national and international institutions to respect the Constitution and the votes of the Afghan people and avoid making such partial and irresponsible assertions. "We believe the only way we can have a legitimate result out of the current process is to allow the legal institutions to complete the process and refrain from interfering in their affairs."
Noor Mohammad Noor, IEC spokesman, said the number set by the EU observers was exaggerated.
He said according to the Election Law, the Electoral Complaints Commission was the only authorized body to revise suspicious votes. He said if the EU observers had any proof in support of their claim, they should present them to the ECC.
The August 20 presidential and provincial council elections was a second such ballot in the country's histroy. But claims of rigging prompted a recount delaying setting up of a new government. The delay could exacerbate the problems facing the war-torn country.
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