Partial results from Afghanistan’s presidential elections released Sunday reveal candidate Abdullah Abdullah as the front-runner, though a runoff election still appears likely. Abdullah, who ran against current president Hamid Karzai in the last election, has 44 percent of the votes that have been tallied so far. Abdullah’s closest competitor, former finance minister and World Bank official Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, has received 33.2 percent of the vote. Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission announced the results, which represent close to half of the approximately 7 million votes cast in the April 5 election, the Associated Press reports.