Meanwhile, the number of complaints of election fraud rose substantially.

The UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission said Tuesday that it had received 790 complaints since election day. Fifty-four of those cases were given 'high priority' and were considered serious enough to potentially affect the outcome of the election, the commission said.

The complaints had more than tripled since Sunday when 225 objections were registered, 35 of them of high priority.

Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal said five million people had cast their votes Thursday. Election authorities had registered 15 million voters for the election, which took place under Taliban threats and rocket fire.

The Independent Election Commission's tallies gave Karzai 212,927 votes to Abdullah's 202,889 ballots.

In third place was former planning minister Ramazan Bashardost with 53,740 votes, followed by former finance minister Ashraf Ghani with 15,143.