Karzai declared poll winner
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Incumbent Hamid Karzai has been declared the winner of Afghanistan's first direct presidential election, the body organizing the vote has said.
Sultan Baheen, spokesman for the U.N.-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body, said a panel examining allegations of election fraud had ruled that while there were irregularities, they did not materially affect the outcome of the October 9 poll, according to Reuters reports.
Karzai won 55.4 percent of the vote, obtaining the majority needed to avoid a run-off against his nearest rival, former education minister Yunus Qanooni.
The poll was the first to take place since the hardline Taliban regime was ousted in 2001 and was seen as a key step in the post-September 11 U.S. campaign to bring democracy to the region.
While Karzai's victory had never been in doubt, vote counting took several weeks and the election commission also had to assess a report investigating allegations of vote fraud.
The panel delivered its report on Tuesday and concluded that while there had been shortcomings, including cases of ballot stuffing, the irregularities had not affected the overall result, The Associated Press reported.
Washington handpicked Karzai to head an interim government set up after U.S. and Afghan resistance forces overthrew the hardline Islamic regime in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden.
Karzai enjoys strong support among Afghanistan's traditional rulers, the Pashtuns, and is seen as a bridge to its international backers and a leader untainted by its bloody past.
But about 1,000 people, many of them insurgents, have died in political violence so far this year and last week three U.N. workers were taken hostage.
The U.S. military, which has 18,000 soldiers hunting al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts in Afghanistan, has hailed the election as a blow to the rebels because their threats to sabotage the vote proved hollow.
The U.N.-backed election, which cost about $200 million to stage, generated huge interest.
Despite intimidation by ousted Taliban insurgents and bad weather, election officials say about eight million of the 10.5 million registered voters cast ballots.
The election result will be officially certified later on Wednesday.
Journalist Kitty Logan in Kabul contributed to this report
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
