Afghanistan's former foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, maintains the lead in the country’s presidential election.

Chairman of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani on Thursday announced the latest results during a press briefing in Kabul. 

According to Nuristani, fresh partial results from the April 5 vote indicate that the opposition candidate has won 43.8 percent of the ballots.

With nearly 82 percent of the votes counted so far, former finance minister, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, comes second with 32.9 percent, while Zalmai Rasoul trails behind with 11.1 percent of the votes.

The full preliminary results are expected to be announced on Saturday. They will be then finalized on May 14 following investigations into fraud claims.

The Election Commission says the vote will most likely go into a run-off between the leading candidates.

An estimated seven million Afghans went to the polls on April 5 to choose a successor to two-time President Hamid Karzai, who is ineligible for a third term.

The election was held amid tight security in 6,000 polling stations across Afghanistan, following threats from Taliban militants, who had pledged to disrupt the polling process.

The elections came ahead of the planned 2014 withdrawal of US-led foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Violence continues to plague Afghanistan despite the presence of thousands of foreign forces, more than 12 years after the US-led invasion of the country in 2001.