Kabul, Aug 21 (DPA) Afghanistan's election commission said Friday that it was too early to declare victory in the presidential election as the two leading candidates both claimed themselves the winner and said no runoff would be necessary.

'No one can be declared the winner before the official result is announced by us,' said Noor Mohammad Noor, spokesman for the Independent Election Commission.

The commission said it expected to release preliminary results from Thursday's election early next week, but the campaigns conducted their own tallies and began announcing those before the commission's.

'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.

'Our figures show that we have enough votes to win, so no need for a second round of voting,' he said, referring to an election rule that a candidate must win a majority of votes to win the presidency in the first round.