President Hamid Karzai was declared winner of Afghanistan’s troubled election today after a run-off vote planned against his main rival was cancelled.

A UN-BACKED commission yesterday ordered a recount of tainted ballots from the Afghan presidential vote, saying it had “convincing evidence of fraud”, even as President Hamid Karzai for the first time surpassed the threshold needed to avoid a run-off and win re-election.

President Hamid Karzai and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah both have roughly 40% of the nationwide vote for president with 10 % of polling stations counted, the Afghan election commission said today as it announced the first official returns.

PRESIDENT Hamid Karzai and top election challenger Abdullah Abdullah positioned themselves yesterday as the winner of Afghanistan’s presidential poll, one day after millions of Afghans braved dozens of militant attacks to cast ballots.

Gunfire and explosions reverberated through Kabul today on the eve of the presidential election after three gunmen forced a shoot-out in a bank.