\'I am sure that the due process and observance of the law will prevail and the Afghan IEC will apply constitutionally correct procedures,\' Ban said, shortly before the commission declared Karzai the winner.
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Ban, who arrived Monday on an unannounced visit to Kabul, said the August voting in the war-torn country was among the most difficult elections the United Nations had supported, taking place amid Taliban attacks and infrastructure shortcomings.
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The Taliban vowed to disrupt the runoff as well and claimed responsibility for an attack Wednesday in which militants, equipped with suicide vests and automatic rifles, stormed a UN guesthouse in downtown Kabul, killing five UN international staff and three Afghans. It claimed it was the beginning of their anti-election campaign.
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Initially, both Karzai\'s camp and the commission had said the runoff would go ahead despite Abdullah\'s decision, but Western officials said the international community, which provided funds and security for the election, was not willing to support a one-man election.
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\'There is no appetite on the part of international community for the second round of the elections,\' said a Western official who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
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He said it would be \'ridiculous\' to spend money and risk lives for a process in which the outcome is already known.
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Karzai garnered more than 54 per cent of the ballots in the August election, a percentage that made him an outright winner, but a UN-backed investigation discounted about 1 million, or a third, of his ballots and pushed him into a runoff with Abdullah, his nearest rival.
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