Kabul, April 7 (IANS): The counting of ballots cast in the Afghan presidential election started Monday with the partial results expected to come out Tuesday, an election official said.

"The polling ended 5 p.m. local time Saturday. The initial counting process took place following the balloting at the polling centres. Today, election materials arrived from the 30 provinces out of 34 to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) headquarters. The tallying of the ballot papers started in National Tally Centre," IEC spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.

The official said ballot boxes from the four remaining provinces will be shifted to Kabul by early Tuesday.

"The partial results are expected to be released early Tuesday," he said.

More than seven million Afghans, out of 12 million eligible voters, cast their votes Saturday to elect a successor for outgoing President Hamid Karzai for the next five years in the first democratic transfer of power through polling in the country's history.

The presidential election complaint period is from April 7 to April 27. Under the Afghan law, the official result cannot be announced until serious complaints are adjudicated.

The preliminary results will come out April 24 and the final result will be announced in mid-May.

The number of presidential candidates has dropped to eight after the withdrawal of three contenders from the race.

The leading presidential candidates are former foreign ministers Abdullah Abdullah and Zulmai Rassoul as well as former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai.

Noor also confirmed that two election workers were killed in two attacks in eastern Paktiya and northern Kunduz province Saturday and Sunday.