Karzai declared Afghan president

11/3/2004 2:00:00 PM GMT

Interim President Hamid Karzai has won Afghanistan's first direct presidential election, the spokesman for the election commission said.

"Karzai is the winner," said Sultan Baheen of the Joint Electoral Management Body, three and a half weeks after the historic October 9 poll.

The results of Afghanistan's first presidential election will be officially issued in a public ceremony in Kabul in at 3:00pm (1030 GMT), Baheen said on Wednesday.

Karzai will be declared as the winner of a five-year term as the country's first directly elected leader.

The interim president won 55.4 percent positive votes in the Oct. 9 election, according to results on the official election Web site, 39 points higher than his main rival, Younus Qanooni and enough to avoid a second round.

Karzai's triumph had never been in doubt, but counting the votes from the Oct. 9 poll took many weeks and the election commission had to evaluate a report given by an expert panel investigating allegations of fraud and irregularities on voting day.

Baheen identified Karzai as the victor shortly after the three-man panel released its report.

The UN-appointed panel concluded that the "shortcomings" on election day, including the low-quality ink, did not affect the ballot's outcome and were too minor to overturn Karzai’s victory.

"There were shortcomings ... but they could not have materially affected the overall result," the panel's report said.