Independent Election Commission declared Hamid Karzai as the elected president of Afghanistan after a runoff was cancelled. The runoff was scheduled on November 7, 2009 but was cancelled when the sole challenger former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah withdrew from the presidential race. [cnn.com, bbc.co.uk, itn.co.uk and latimes.com]
It was reported that according to the Electoral Complaints Commission, the current President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai did not gain enough votes for an outright win in the August 20 presidential election. He needed at least 50 percent votes to avoid a runoff with his closest rival former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. If a runoff is necessary, the Afghan election officials have tentatively set November 1 as the date for a runoff. [cnn.com and bbc.co.uk]