Ban, Brown congratulate Karzai for victory in Afghan vote (3rd Lead)

Kabul - The Afghan Independent Election Commission on Monday declared incumbent Hamid Karzai the winner of the presidential election after his challenger pulled out of the coming weekend's runoff. The commission cancelled Saturday's second round of voting and declared Karzai president for the next five years, Chairman Azizullah Ludin announced in Kabul. Ludin said the commission came to the decision because a runoff was unnecessary with only one candidate remaining, Karzai had won the most votes in the first round on August 20 and the constitution mandates that a runoff be held between two candidates. The commission, or IEC, also hoped to avoid insurgent attacks and the expense of a runoff, he said. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown became the first world leaders to congratulate Karzai on his re-election. 'I welcome today's decision by Afghanistan's IEC to forgo a runoff vote and to declare Hamid Karzai as the winner of the 2009 presidential elections,' said Ban, who met the incumbent earlier Monday after arriving in Kabul on an unannounced visit. Brown called Karzai to congratulate him and to reaffirm his country's commitment to assisting Afghanistan, Karzai's office said in a statement. The first round of the voting on August 20 was marred by massive fraud, mostly in favour of Karzai, and Abdullah said Sunday that he was ending his campaign after Karzai did not accept his conditions for bringing transparency to the runoff. Abdullah, however, did not question the legitimacy of Karzai's future government and said that he was open for talks on forming the new government, which could involve his supporters taking part in the administration. Sayed Fazel Sangcharaki, Abdullah's spokesman, said the former foreign minister's camp had no immediate reaction to the IEC's decision but added, 'We did not expect anything more than this from this commission.' Political analysts said they believe Karzai must make concessions to Abdullah's camp to achieve a political compromise and end the two and half months of political uncertainty in the country. Abdullah's conciliatory tone was interpreted by analysts as a sign that some sort of power-sharing deal could be formed in the days or weeks to come.