Hamid Karzai has been declared president of Afghanistan, after election officials scrapped a planned second round of voting. The announcement comes a day after Mr Karzai’s sole challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, pulled out of the race. Dr Abdullah, who had demanded the removal of key poll officials, said the vote would not have been fair. The first round had been marred by fraud. The US responded by saying Mr Karzai was Afghanistan’s “legitimate leader”.
