Karzai declared elected president

Hamid Karzai has been declared president of Afghanistan, after election officials scrapped a planned second round of voting.

The announcement comes a day after Mr Karzai's sole challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of the race.

Dr Abdullah, who had demanded the removal of key poll officials, said the vote would not have been fair. The first round had been marred by fraud.

Key Nato allies of Afghanistan have congratulated Mr Karzai.

On Monday a spokesman for the Independent Election Commission (IEC), Azizullah Lodin, declared that President Karzai, "the only candidate for the second round", had been "elected president of Afghanistan".

He said the second round on 7 November was being scrapped to save money, for security reasons and to prevent further setbacks that could damage Afghanistan politically and economically.

The Taliban, which carried out attacks across the country during the first round, had vowed to disrupt the polls again next Saturday.

President Karzai had been the favourite to win the run-off after gaining more votes in the first round on 20 August.

One of the reasons for holding a deciding vote had been to try to restore some legitimacy to the process after the discredited first round.

A number of international figures, including US Senator John Kerry, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, had been involved in persuading Mr Karzai to accept a run-off.

'Historic' election

However Mr Brown welcomed the commission's decision.



The Independent Election Commission announces Mr Karzai's election
A spokesman said the PM had "spoken to President Karzai to congratulate him on his re-election" and the two men had "discussed the importance of the president moving quickly to set out a unifying programme for the future of Afghanistan".

The US administration, though its embassy in Kabul, also hailed the commission's move which it said conformed to "its mandate under Afghan law".

The statement added: "We congratulate President Karzai on his victory in this historic election and look forward to working with him."

But Dr Abdullah had demanded key officials be removed from the IEC, which is widely regarded as pro-Karzai.

Earlier on Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Kabul and said Afghanistan's troubled election had been among "the most difficult the United Nations has ever supported".

The BBC's Lyse Doucet in Kabul says there has been intense discussion in recent days as to whether scrapping the second round would be constitutionally legal.

Some observers are saying Mr Karzai's legitimacy is also in question, and ask whether his government can be effective, adds our correspondent.

This would be a particular concern to US President Barack Obama as he considers whether to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Hundreds of thousands of votes were discounted from August's first round, including almost a third of ballots cast for Mr Karzai.

The incumbent's share of the vote was cut to just under the crucial 50% plus one ballot threshold needed for outright victory, following an investigation by the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission.

Dr Abdullah - a Tajik-Pashtun former eye surgeon and ex-foreign minister - was adjudged in the end to have won nearly a third of valid votes cast.