The 2009 election, when Karzai retained power, was marred by fraud in a chaotic process that shook confidence in the multinational effort to develop the country and also marked a sharp decline in relations with the United States.
Karzai stayed publically neutral in this latest election, but was widely thought to have lent some support to his loyal former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, who took just 11 percent of the vote.
Rassoul could still play a key role in power-brokering before the next president is chosen, as could former Islamist warlord Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, who collected a seven percent.
Abdullah, a pro-US politician who came second in 2009, was a close adviser to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a revered Tajik ethnic leader who fought the Taliban during their 1996-2001 rule.
Ghani is a renowned intellectual who energised the campaign with his fiery speeches and is more favoured by the larger Pashtun ethnic group.
The leading candidates have pledged to explore peace talks with the Taliban and sign a deal with the US that could allow 10,000 US troops to stay on after this year on a training and counter-terrorism mission.
Nearly seven million people voted in the April 5 election out of an estimated electorate of 13.5 million well above the 2009 turnout.
Of those who voted, 36 percent were female a figure likely to be seen as a sign of some improvement in women’s status in Afghanistan, a deeply conservative Muslim country.
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