Karzai declared winner as Afghan presidential run-off scrapped
Updated
Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission has cancelled the final round of voting in the country's presidential election, after the main opposition candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out in protest at wide spread ballot rigging.
His decision left President Hamid Karzai as the only remaining candidate, and he's now been declared the winner.
Presenter: Sally Sara, South Asia correspondent.
Speakers: Zekria Barakzai, Independent Election Commission spokesman; Daoud Sultanzoy, Afghan MP; Shukria Barakzai, Afghan MP
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SALLY SARA: Afghanistan's presidential election has been called off before voters had a final chance to choose.
The Independent Election Commission has scrapped the run-off poll.
The last candidate left in the race, President Hamid Karzai, has been crowned the winner.
SPOKESMAN FOR INDEPENDENT ELECTION COMMISSION: We declare that Mr Hamid Karzai be declared as elected President of Afghanistan.
SALLY SARA: The IEC made the announcement a day after President Karzai's rival Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the campaign.
Dr Abdullah believed there was no chance of a free and fair vote after wide spread vote rigging in the first round in August.
IEC spokesman Zekria Barakzai says the election was no longer viable when it became a one man race.
ZEKRIA BARAKZAI: We had no other choice because elections with one candidate doesn't make sense with all these expenses, security problems and so on. Country is in state of war and because of these elections Afghans were waiting for many months for the outcome. But in these circumstances, keeping people in a vacuum, uncertainty, it will bring more chaos and difficult situation Afghanistan is now.
SALLY SARA: But Afghan Member of Parliament Daoud Sultanzoy says the process should have been completed properly.
DAOUD SULTANZOY: When we start something we always leave it unfinished. We either shouldn't start things, or when we start them we should finish them, especially in the environment that we are living in, in the Islamic world in Afghanistan. We should have delayed it further to have it right.
SALLY SARA: The big question now is legitimacy. Will President Karzai have a strong grip on power when he failed to win the election in his own right?
Almost one million fraudulent votes were scrapped from the first round. Most were for President Karzai, even though he had a strong lead.
Afghan MP Shukria Barakzai believes President Karzai's legitimacy has been undermined.
SHUKRIA BARAKZAI: They announced that Karzai is the legitimate president. I think and I believe this is a new start for a new political crisis in Afghanistan with the legitimacy of the government.
SALLY SARA: In the short term there is some relief for foreign forces in Afghanistan. They have been spared the task of preparing to secure another round of voting.
Britain and the United States have welcomed President Karzai's victory but they are already warning they have firm expectations for his second term.
