Incumbent Mr Hamid Karzai has been declared the official winner of last month's historic Afghan presidential election, the body organising the vote said today.
"Karzai is the winner," Mr Sultan Baheen, spokesman for the UN-Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body told journalists.
The panel delivered its report yesterday and concluded that while there had been shortcomings, including cases of ballot stuffing, the irregularities had not affected the overall result.
For the past three years, Mr Karzai has led an interim government, installed after US and Afghan resistance forces overthrew the Taliban militia in late 2001 for refusing to hand over al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Armed with a mandate from the people, Mr Karzai can now form a cabinet of his own, although his choices will have to be ratified once the National Assembly is established after parliamentary elections due in April.
His victory had never been in doubt, but counting the votes from the poll took several weeks and the election commission had also to assess a report given by a three-man panel investigating allegations of vote fraud.
Mr Karzai's triumph has been soured by the kidnapping last week of three UN election officials.
