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| Karzai declared elected president | Karzai declared elected president |
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| Hamid Karzai has been declared the elected president of Afghanistan by poll officials, after they scrapped the planned second round of the vote. | Hamid Karzai has been declared the elected president of Afghanistan by poll officials, after they scrapped the planned second round of the vote. |
| The Independent Election Commission (IEC) announcement comes a day after Mr Karzai's sole challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of the race. | |
| Dr Abdullah, who had demanded key poll officials quit, said he did not think it would be a free and fair vote. | Dr Abdullah, who had demanded key poll officials quit, said he did not think it would be a free and fair vote. |
| The first round of the vote, in August, was marred by mass electoral fraud. | The first round of the vote, in August, was marred by mass electoral fraud. |
| "We declare Hamid Karzai, which [sic] got the majority of votes in the first round and [since] he is the only candidate for the second round... be declared as elected president of Afghanistan," said IEC spokesman Azizullah Ludin at Monday's news conference in Kabul. | |
| ANALYSIS Andrew North, BBC News, Kabul | |
| The announcement that the run-off vote was being cancelled had been widely expected. All reports suggested it was simply a question of finding the legal means to bring the process to an end. | |
| The point of holding a second round was to try to restore some legitimacy to the process after there was so much fraud - almost a third of votes for President Karzai were invalidated because of massive ballot stuffing. | |
| Now the second round has been cancelled, largely because of international pressure. It is a very unsatisfactory end, not the end anyone here wished for. At the moment it is being seen as the best of a lot of bad options. | |
| But questions are going to remain. How can Mr Karzai really be seen as a legitimate partner when he got into office after such a fraud-affected first round? | |
| He said the second round on 7 November was being scrapped to save money, and to prevent further setbacks which could damage Afghanistan politically and economically. | He said the second round on 7 November was being scrapped to save money, and to prevent further setbacks which could damage Afghanistan politically and economically. |
| President Karzai had been the favourite to win the run-off after gaining more votes in the first round on 20 August. | 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. | |
| 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". | 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. | 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. | |
| Hundreds of thousands of votes were discounted from August's vote, which was marred by widespread fraud. | |
| An investigation by the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission led to Mr Karzai's share of the vote being cut to just under the crucial 50% plus one vote threshold needed for outright victory. | |
| 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. |