Hamid Karzai became president of Afghanistan

Interim leader &to= english.pravda.ru/world/2002/07/30/33491.html ' target=_blank>Hamid Karzai has won the required number of votes for outright victory in Afghanistan's first presidential election, his supporters and his chief rival said Sunday. "We have a simple majority. This is exactly what we want," Karzai's campaign spokesman Hamid Elmi said as soon as Karzai's tally passed four million ballots. Karzai had the "secure majority of 50 percent plus one," said presidential aide Khaleeq Ahmed. "We are very delighted that we have a secure majority now. And we will wait to celebrate until 100 percent of the vote has been counted. "We will celebrate when the results are officially announced and not before that." Karzai's chief rival, Yunus Qanouni, was swift to acknowledge Karzai's majority, 15 days after the landmark ballot drew millions to vote for the first time in their lives, informs the Daily Star. According to Bloomberg, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has an overall majority in the country's presidential election, winning 4.2 million of the estimated 8 million votes, according to incomplete results on the election Web site. With more than 94 percent of votes counted, Karzai, 46, has 55.3 percent of the vote, the Afghan-United Nations Joint Electoral Management Body said. Yunus Qanooni won 16.2 percent of the vote. The former education minister conceded defeat, Agence France-Presse reported from the capital, Kabul. ``In order to respect the nation's will, based on the numbers announced up to now, we consider Karzai the winner,'' AFP cited Sayed Hamid Noori, Qanooni's spokesman, as saying. ``There were lots of cases of fraud and irregularities.'' A United Nations-appointed commission is investigating complaints of irregularities from Afghanistan's first direct presidential election. The final results will be declared when voting is completed and the commission's report is completed, the UN has said. The official declaration of results is ``a matter of days away,'' AFP cited Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the UN's spokesman in &to= english.pravda.ru/main/2003/01/17/42209.html ' target=_blank>Afghanistan, as saying yesterday. The commission is completing its report and will discuss about 100 voting complaints with opposition candidates today, he said. Supporters of Hamid Karzai, the leading candidate in Afghanistan's first &to= english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/353/12051_president.html ' target=_blank>democratic presidential election, say he has achieved an outright victory over his opponents. Hamid Karzai's main rival has conceded defeat with less than 6% of the vote count remaining. A spokesman for Yunus Qanuni said he would accept Karzai's victory despite irregularities in the election. He said Mr Qanuni wanted to avoid a political crisis. The election organisers will not announce an official result until all ballots are counted and a UN probe into voting irregularities is completed, reports RTE News.

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