Karzai had urged Abdullah, left, to reconsider his decision and take part in the runoff [File: EPA]

Afghanistan's election panel announced the decision on Monday after a runoff planned for November 7 was cancelled.

Karzai would have been the only candidate after his rival, Abdullah Abdullah, withdrew a day earlier.

Azizullah Ludin, chairman of the Independent Election Commission (IEC), declared Karzai victor at a news conference in Kabul, despite having stressed earlier that cancelling the runoff would be unconstitutional.

Zekria Barakzai, the IEC's deputy chief electoral officer, contradicted Ludin's initial statement telling Al Jazeera later: "Today's decision by the IEC was according to the provision of the constitution which requires at least two candidates for the second round."

The discovery of widespread fraud in the first round resulted in Karzai losing his more than 50 per cent advantage forcing him into a second round.

Validity questions

The validity of the electoral process and the independence of the IEC have both been called into question.

Abdullah cited the government's refusal to accept his demands for changes in the IEC for his decision to leave Karzai as the sole candidate.

The cancellation of the runoff followed a meeting on Monday between Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, with Karzai and Abdullah.

Sacking demand

The first round of Afghanistan's elections on August 20 was so badly affected by ballot-box stuffing and distorted tallies that more than one million votes were thrown out.

Abdullah had demanded that Karzai sack Ludin and suspend four ministers who campaigned for the president as part of electoral reforms.

He told supporters on Sunday a "transparent election is not possible" and that the Afghan government has been illegitimate since May.

"I'll not take part in the election," Abdullah had said, adding that he had "not taken this decision easily".

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