He has shown media what he claims to be list results of polling stations in southern and eastern provinces, where the results showed hundreds of identical numbers for Karzai and none for any other candidate.

In a statement on Tuesday, the ECC ordered the IEC to recount ballot boxes from polling stations in which a candidate received more than 600 votes as IEC pre-poll estimates only expected an average of 600 voters to arrive at any one polling station.

The order also urged the IEC to also exclude votes from polling stations, in which a presidential candidate received more than 95 percent of the total vote cast.

But Najafi said the ECC's English version of the recount order did not match the text of the version in Dari, the local language, and that they had officially asked for clarification.

'If in case the ECC orders the IEC to recount the ballots for some polling stations, we cannot implement that until and unless we count all the preliminary result,' he said.

UN and Western officials believe that the fraudulent votes that have already been counted in the partial results could reach one million ballots, according to Western diplomats.

'I think if those votes are thrown out of the preliminary results, Karzai would not be able to receive 50 percent of the vote and there will be a run-off,' said a Western diplomat on condition of anonymity.

Sources also said US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry and Deputy UN Special Representative to Afghanistan Peter Galbraith met with Karzai Monday to urge the president not to interfere in the IEC's work and allow it to exclude fraudulent votes.

The UN envoy in Afghanistan Kai Eide urged the IEC and ECC in a statement issued Tuesday to 'redouble their efforts to ensure full rigour in their work at every stage'.

With the IEC refusing to do the recount and Karzai appearing to be the clear winner, the responsibility now lies on the ECC's shoulders to throw out any fraudulent votes and lead the elections to a possible run-off.

But Afghan and Western officials stated that they believe the ECC would be unable to do so due to its shortage of staff, ultimately leaving the country in political limbo.