Afghanistan’s election officials declared on Monday that former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani won last month’s second round of a presidential election with 56.44 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

Afghanistan's election officials declared on Monday that former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani won last month's second round of a presidential election with 56.44 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results.

His rival Abdullah Abdullah came second with 43.56 percent of the vote, the Independent Election Commission said.

Abdullah, who has a Pashtun father and a Tajik mother, draws much of his support from the Tajik minority in northern Afghanistan. Ghani, a former World Bank economist, has strong support from Pashtun tribes in the country's south and east.

Refusal by either Abdullah or Ghani to accept the outcome of the election could plunge the country into a dangerous crisis.

Abdullah has accused Karzai, also a Pashtun, of playing a role in the alleged rigging in Ghani's favor and says he would accept the vote only if he saw firm evidence that fraudulent votes had been thrown out and the final result was clean.

As their standoff intensified in past weeks, Afghanistan has become awash with talk about a broader rift along ethnic lines or even violence unless they agree to accept the outcome of the vote or come to a compromise arrangement.

In the background, Taliban militiamen remained a formidable security risk after vowing to disrupt the election process. On Monday, they killed a district police chief in the western city of Herat and attacked a check point in northern Afghanistan.